Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Stock

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) had its target price increased by analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $43.00 to $48.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the bank’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective would suggest a potential downside of 0.25% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on EQBK. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Equity Bancshares from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Stephens upgraded shares of Equity Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th.

Equity Bancshares Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Equity Bancshares stock opened at $48.12 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $44.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.63. The company has a market capitalization of $735.75 million, a P/E ratio of 43.75 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Equity Bancshares has a 1 year low of $27.28 and a 1 year high of $50.85.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $55.35 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.77 million. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 6.36%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equity Bancshares will post 4.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Equity Bancshares

In other news, Director Leon Borck bought 1,467 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $38.77 per share, for a total transaction of $56,875.59. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 11,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $462,952.57. The trade was a 14.01 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 2,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.64, for a total value of $98,072.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 151,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,480,384.56. This represents a 1.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EQBK. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,213 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $131,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 19,240 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $677,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares in the last quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC raised its position in Equity Bancshares by 3.1% in the second quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 13,673 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $481,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 4.1% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 37,735 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,481 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Equity Bancshares by 74.1% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 5,052 shares of the bank’s stock worth $207,000 after buying an additional 2,150 shares during the period. 71.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.