The First Bancshares, Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 (NASDAQ:FBMS)

The First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FBMS) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, NASDAQ reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the bank on Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th.

First Bancshares has raised its dividend payment by an average of 28.9% per year over the last three years.

First Bancshares Trading Down 1.7 %

FBMS traded down $0.56 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $33.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 141,664 shares, compared to its average volume of 195,918. First Bancshares has a 52-week low of $22.96 and a 52-week high of $34.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $32.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.43. 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 firm has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.41 and a beta of 0.92.

First Bancshares (NASDAQ:FBMS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $104.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $70.40 million. First Bancshares had a net margin of 18.71% and a return on equity of 8.82%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that First Bancshares will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FBMS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Janney Montgomery Scott lowered First Bancshares from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of First Bancshares in a research report on Sunday. They set a “sell” rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded First Bancshares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Hovde Group raised their price target on First Bancshares from $29.00 to $32.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.50.

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.