FB Financial Co. (NYSE:FBK) Short Interest Up 19.0% in November

FB Financial Co. (NYSE:FBK) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 546,800 shares, an increase of 19.0% from the October 31st total of 459,600 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 151,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.6 days. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Activity at FB Financial

In related news, Director James W. Iv Cross sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.22, for a total transaction of $291,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 54,078 shares in the company, valued at $3,148,421.16. This represents a 8.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder James W. Ayers bought 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $57.15 per share, for a total transaction of $57,150.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,909,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $623,497,413.15. The trade was a 0.01 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders purchased a total of 13,000 shares of company stock valued at $658,460 over the last quarter. 1.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FB Financial

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of FB Financial by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 17,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $691,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of FB Financial by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 80,665 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,786,000 after buying an additional 356 shares during the period. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC raised its stake in FB Financial by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 25,895 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,011,000 after buying an additional 412 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in FB Financial by 2.7% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $685,000 after acquiring an additional 467 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in FB Financial by 0.4% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 111,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,346,000 after acquiring an additional 482 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FBK. StockNews.com lowered shares of FB Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of FB Financial from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Hovde Group cut FB Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, FB Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.60.

FB Financial Price Performance

FBK opened at $56.45 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $50.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.65 and a beta of 1.12. FB Financial has a fifty-two week low of $32.82 and a fifty-two week high of $58.88.

FB Financial (NYSE:FBK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $169.13 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $127.44 million. FB Financial had a return on equity of 10.38% and a net margin of 14.40%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that FB Financial will post 3.38 EPS for the current year.

FB Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 5th. FB Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.69%.

About FB Financial

FB Financial Corporation operates as a bank holding company for FirstBank that provides a suite of commercial and consumer banking services to businesses, professionals, and individuals. The company operates in segments, such as Banking and Mortgage. It offers checking, demand, money market, and savings accounts; deposit and lending products and services to corporate, commercial, and consumer customers; and time deposits and certificates of deposits, as well as residential mortgage loans.