First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) Now Covered by StockNews.com

Research analysts at StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) in a research report issued on Saturday. The brokerage set a “sell” rating on the bank’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on FBMS. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of First Bancshares from $29.00 to $32.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.50.

First Bancshares Trading Up 4.0 %

Shares of FBMS stock opened at $32.47 on Friday. First Bancshares has a twelve month low of $22.96 and a twelve month high of $34.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.88 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business’s 50 day moving average is $32.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $28.00.

First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $104.35 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.40 million. First Bancshares had a net margin of 18.71% and a return on equity of 8.82%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that First Bancshares will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of First Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FBMS. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in First Bancshares by 72.7% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 62,984 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,634,000 after buying an additional 26,514 shares during the period. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Bancshares in the 1st quarter worth about $463,000. Boston Partners bought a new stake in First Bancshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $895,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in First Bancshares by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,626,074 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,197,000 after purchasing an additional 59,471 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in First Bancshares by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 119,512 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,105,000 after purchasing an additional 16,723 shares during the period. 69.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

First Bancshares Company Profile

The First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for The First Bank that provides general commercial and retail banking services. The company operates through three segments: Commercial/Retail Bank, Mortgage Banking Division, and Holding Company. It offers deposit services, including checking, NOW, and savings accounts; other time deposits, such as daily money market accounts and longer-term certificates of deposit; and individual retirement and health savings accounts.