Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Sets New 12-Month High at $42.28

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $42.28 and last traded at $42.00, with a volume of 43635 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $40.93.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on EQBK shares. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Equity Bancshares from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Stephens lifted their price objective on shares of Equity Bancshares from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.00.

Equity Bancshares Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $631.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.97 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $38.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.29.

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

Insider Transactions at Equity Bancshares

In related news, Director Gregory L. Gaeddert sold 6,000 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.99, for a total transaction of $245,940.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $703,675.33. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Equity Bancshares news, Director Gregory L. Gaeddert sold 6,000 shares of Equity Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.99, for a total value of $245,940.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,167 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,675.33. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 24,801 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.64, for a total value of $1,007,912.64. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 151,616 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,161,674.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 8.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp increased its position in shares of Equity Bancshares by 2,539.9% during the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 350,000 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,320,000 after acquiring an additional 336,742 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Equity Bancshares in the second quarter valued at about $322,000. ELCO Management Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 3.1% during the 2nd 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. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 35.2% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 41,585 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,464,000 after purchasing an additional 10,824 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of Equity Bancshares by 1.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

Equity Bancshares Company Profile

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.