Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases New Shares in Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 13,247 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $449,000. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. owned approximately 0.09% of Equity Bancshares at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Rocky Mountain Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equity Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $69,000. Denali Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 25.5% during the 4th quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 6,400 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $217,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Equity Bancshares by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 8,978 shares of the bank’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 2,162 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Equity Bancshares by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 764,382 shares of the bank’s stock worth $18,399,000 after purchasing an additional 9,639 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Equity Bancshares by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 139,652 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,361,000 after purchasing an additional 13,399 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.80% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 value 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 approximately $4,801,418.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 value 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 approximately $4,801,418.16. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Brett A. Reber sold 959 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 $30,822.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 29,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $936,784.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,478 shares of company stock valued at $268,894. 8.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Equity Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of Equity Bancshares stock opened at $31.81 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $491.15 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.68 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $32.53 and its 200 day moving average is $30.38. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $20.50 and a 1 year high of $34.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The bank reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.12. Equity Bancshares had a net margin of 3.43% and a return on equity of 11.60%. The company had revenue of ($3.95) million for 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 firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 29th were given a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. Equity Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 102.13%.

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.