Stephens Upgrades Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) to Overweight

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) was upgraded by stock analysts at Stephens from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $46.00 price target on the bank’s stock. Stephens’ price target indicates a potential upside of 6.24% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $39.25.

Equity Bancshares Price Performance

EQBK stock opened at $43.30 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.45. The stock has a market cap of $660.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.17 and a beta of 0.89. Equity Bancshares has a 1 year low of $22.78 and a 1 year high of $43.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.07. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 12.43%. The firm had revenue of $55.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $54.56 million. Research analysts anticipate that Equity Bancshares will post 4.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Equity Bancshares

In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction of $1,007,912.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,616 shares in the company, valued at $6,161,674.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total transaction of $1,007,912.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 151,616 shares in the company, valued at $6,161,674.24. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Leon Borck bought 1,467 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $38.77 per share, for a total transaction of $56,875.59. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 11,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $462,952.57. This represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,101 shares of company stock worth $1,351,925 over the last three months. 8.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of EQBK. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in Equity Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth $322,000. Denali Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 112.5% in the first quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 13,600 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $467,000 after buying an additional 7,200 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 97.0% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 7,190 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $247,000 after buying an additional 3,541 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 8.0% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 75,240 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,586,000 after buying an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares in the first quarter valued at $364,000. 71.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Equity Bancshares

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.