First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) Earns Sell Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

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

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on FBMS. Hovde Group boosted their target price on shares of First Bancshares from $29.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $40.00 in a report on Friday, August 2nd. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.50.

First Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of FBMS stock opened at $31.32 on Friday. First Bancshares has a twelve month low of $22.96 and a twelve month high of $34.40. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $977.78 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.43 and a beta of 0.92.

First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. First Bancshares had a return on equity of 8.82% and a net margin of 18.71%. The firm had revenue of $104.35 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $70.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that First Bancshares will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of First Bancshares during the second quarter valued at $4,548,000. Algebris UK Ltd purchased a new stake in First Bancshares during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,492,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of First Bancshares by 7.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,404,491 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $36,487,000 after purchasing an additional 91,314 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of First Bancshares by 65.0% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 231,635 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,018,000 after purchasing an additional 91,269 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of First Bancshares by 310.0% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 91,591 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,380,000 after purchasing an additional 69,254 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.95% of the company’s stock.

About First Bancshares

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.