Short Interest in Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC) Decreases By 15.2%

Enterprise Financial Services Corp (NASDAQ:EFSC) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 382,200 shares, a decline of 15.2% from the February 13th total of 450,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 160,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James M. Havel sold 5,525 shares of Enterprise Financial Services stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.47, for a total transaction of $323,046.75. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 15,447 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $903,186.09. The trade was a 26.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Enterprise Financial Services

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EFSC. PL Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Enterprise Financial Services by 5,540.0% during the fourth quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 39,695,956 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,238,852,000 after buying an additional 38,992,127 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Enterprise Financial Services by 16.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,545,092 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $181,721,000 after purchasing an additional 505,552 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Enterprise Financial Services during the fourth quarter valued at $7,556,000. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in Enterprise Financial Services by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 566,780 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $31,966,000 after purchasing an additional 125,150 shares during the period. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC lifted its position in Enterprise Financial Services by 1,856.8% during the third quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 130,869 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,708,000 after purchasing an additional 124,181 shares during the period. 72.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on EFSC shares. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Enterprise Financial Services from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target (up from $68.00) on shares of Enterprise Financial Services in a report on Wednesday, January 29th.

Enterprise Financial Services Price Performance

NASDAQ EFSC opened at $55.63 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. Enterprise Financial Services has a 12-month low of $37.28 and a 12-month high of $63.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.49 and a beta of 0.97.

Enterprise Financial Services (NASDAQ:EFSC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The bank reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.14. Enterprise Financial Services had a net margin of 20.12% and a return on equity of 10.94%. Analysts forecast that Enterprise Financial Services will post 4.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Enterprise Financial Services Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Enterprise Financial Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. Enterprise Financial Services’s payout ratio is 23.97%.

About Enterprise Financial Services

Enterprise Financial Services Corp operates as the holding company for Enterprise Bank & Trust that offers banking and wealth management services to individuals and corporate customers primarily in Arizona, California, Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, and New Mexico. It provides checking, savings, money market accounts, and certificates of deposit.