Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) CAO Julie Ann Fairchild Sells 1,000 Shares

Southern First Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFST) CAO Julie Ann Fairchild sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.23, for a total transaction of $45,230.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $264,143.20. The trade was a 14.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Southern First Bancshares Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ SFST opened at $44.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $366.06 million, a P/E ratio of 25.44 and a beta of 0.79. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. has a 1-year low of $24.98 and a 1-year high of $45.90. The business’s 50 day moving average is $37.49 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

Southern First Bancshares (NASDAQ:SFST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $54.35 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.57 million. Southern First Bancshares had a return on equity of 4.42% and a net margin of 6.67%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.51 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Southern First Bancshares, Inc. will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Southern First Bancshares

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Southern First Bancshares by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 413,259 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $13,125,000 after purchasing an additional 16,012 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 181.4% during the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 25,443 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $808,000 after buying an additional 16,400 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Southern First Bancshares during the first quarter valued at approximately $394,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 2.9% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 28,280 shares of the bank’s stock worth $827,000 after buying an additional 805 shares during the period. Finally, Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Southern First Bancshares by 19.3% in the second quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,983 shares of the bank’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 1,614 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.00% of the company’s stock.

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.