Insider Buying: Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) Director Buys 1,500 Shares of Stock

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK – Get Rating) Director Gregory L. Gaeddert acquired 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 9th. The stock was bought at an average price of $28.33 per share, with a total value of $42,495.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 16,451 shares in the company, valued at approximately $466,056.83. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Equity Bancshares Stock Down 5.9 %

Shares of Equity Bancshares stock opened at $26.15 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a 50-day moving average of $30.86 and a 200 day moving average of $32.47. The firm has a market cap of $416.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.43 and a beta of 0.78. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.15 and a 1 year high of $38.04.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 25th. The bank reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $50.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $50.89 million. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 14.55% and a net margin of 25.73%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 30th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 29th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Equity Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd.

Institutional Trading of Equity Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Voya Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Equity Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at about $206,000. Truist Financial Corp bought a new stake in Equity Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at about $459,000. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY increased its stake in Equity Bancshares by 40.4% during the 4th quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY now owns 1,113 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in Equity Bancshares by 22.0% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 19,644 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $642,000 after purchasing an additional 3,547 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Equity Bancshares by 261.3% during the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,224 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $171,000 after purchasing an additional 3,778 shares in the last quarter. 59.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Equity Bancshares

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Equity Bancshares, Inc is a bank holding company, which engages in the provision of financial services to individuals and businesses. The firm also offers commercial and personal banking services such as savings, treasury management and loans. The company was founded by Brad S. Elliott in November 2002 and is headquartered in Wichita, KS.