First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FGBI) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FGBI) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,000 shares, an increase of 8.1% from the August 31st total of 11,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 10,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.2 days. Currently, 0.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of First Guaranty Bancshares

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FGBI. Cullen Investment Group LTD. boosted its stake in First Guaranty Bancshares by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 71,775 shares of the bank’s stock worth $730,000 after purchasing an additional 1,082 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of First Guaranty Bancshares by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 272,035 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,761,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of First Guaranty Bancshares by 8.0% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 37,585 shares of the bank’s stock worth $381,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of First Guaranty Bancshares during the second quarter worth $138,000. Institutional investors own 39.52% of the company’s stock.

First Guaranty Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FGBI opened at $10.61 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $132.68 million, a P/E ratio of 21.65 and a beta of 0.30. First Guaranty Bancshares has a 1-year low of $8.39 and a 1-year high of $13.32.

First Guaranty Bancshares (NASDAQ:FGBI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.33. First Guaranty Bancshares had a net margin of 5.53% and a return on equity of 5.84%. The company had revenue of $36.77 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $24.86 million. Research analysts expect that First Guaranty Bancshares will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Guaranty Bancshares Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 20th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 20th. First Guaranty Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.31%.

About First Guaranty Bancshares

First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc operates as the holding company for First Guaranty Bank that provides commercial banking services in Louisiana and Texas. It offers various deposit products, including personal and business checking, savings, money market, and demand accounts, as well as time deposits to consumers, small businesses, and municipalities.