Insider Buying: Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) Director Purchases 360 Shares of Stock

Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) Director Anna T. Locke purchased 360 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $37.01 per share, for a total transaction of $13,323.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 2,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,559.82. The trade was a 16.20 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Southern First Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ SFST opened at $35.68 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. has a 12-month low of $24.98 and a 12-month high of $45.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $291.15 million, a P/E ratio of 18.58 and a beta of 0.83.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The bank reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.29. Southern First Bancshares had a net margin of 7.28% and a return on equity of 4.85%. Analysts forecast that Southern First Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern First Bancshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rhino Investment Partners Inc lifted its stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 2,936.8% during the fourth quarter. Rhino Investment Partners Inc now owns 230,221 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,151,000 after buying an additional 222,640 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 79,280 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,151,000 after buying an additional 2,560 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 797,043 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,683,000 after buying an additional 2,026 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 350,875 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,947,000 after buying an additional 10,854 shares during the period. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 33,041 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,313,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. 75.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Southern First Bancshares Company Profile

Southern First Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Southern First Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans to the general public in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The company accepts various deposit products that include checking accounts, commercial checking accounts, and savings accounts, as well as other time deposits, including daily money market accounts and long-term certificates of deposit.