Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) Shares Gap Up to $31.84

Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) shares gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $31.84, but opened at $33.15. Equity Bancshares shares last traded at $33.13, with a volume of 4,387 shares.

Equity Bancshares Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average is $32.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The firm has a market cap of $504.12 million, a P/E ratio of 70.19 and a beta of 0.89.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The bank reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.12. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 3.43% and a return on equity of 11.60%. The business had revenue of ($3.95) million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $47.67 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.47%. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 102.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 6,290 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.57, for a total transaction of $198,575.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 152,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,801,418.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Equity Bancshares news, CEO Brad S. Elliott sold 6,290 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.57, for a total transaction of $198,575.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 152,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,801,418.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Julie A. Huber sold 1,050 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.14, for a total value of $33,747.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 56,918 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,829,344.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,478 shares of company stock valued at $268,894 over the last quarter. 8.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 406.0% in the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,189 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 954 shares during the period. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY increased its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 40.4% in the fourth quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co NY now owns 1,113 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 153.5% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,162 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 1,309 shares during the period. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equity Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Equity Bancshares by 530.7% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,756 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $93,000 after buying an additional 2,319 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

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.