Primis Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:FRST) Short Interest Down 10.8% in November

Primis Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:FRST) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 80,400 shares, a decrease of 10.8% from the November 15th total of 90,100 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 65,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director F L. Garrett III bought 3,660 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $12.32 per share, with a total value of $45,091.20. Following the purchase, the director now owns 41,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $507,202.08. The trade was a 9.76 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 10.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Primis Financial

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Foundry Partners LLC boosted its stake in Primis Financial by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 393,575 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,794,000 after purchasing an additional 49,735 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Primis Financial in the third quarter worth about $828,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in Primis Financial by 91.5% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 125,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,523,000 after buying an additional 59,746 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Primis Financial by 13.5% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 70,578 shares of the company’s stock valued at $740,000 after buying an additional 8,398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Primis Financial by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 78,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $950,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Stephens reduced their target price on Primis Financial from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th.

Primis Financial Price Performance

FRST traded down $0.22 on Tuesday, hitting $12.24. 61,464 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 65,937. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Primis Financial has a 12 month low of $9.52 and a 12 month high of $13.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $302.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.24 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50-day moving average of $12.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.64.

Primis Financial (NASDAQ:FRST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.43 by ($0.35). Primis Financial had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 3.28%. The firm had revenue of $66.40 million for the quarter. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Primis Financial will post 0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Primis Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th.

Primis Financial Company Profile

Primis Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Primis Bank that provides a range of financial services to individuals and small and medium sized businesses in the United States. Its deposit products include checking, NOW, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposits.