JPMorgan Chase & Co. Acquires 17,431 Shares of Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQBK) by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 360,457 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,431 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Equity Bancshares were worth $14,735,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its position in Equity Bancshares by 2,539.9% during the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 350,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,320,000 after purchasing an additional 336,742 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Equity Bancshares by 175.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 112,292 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,590,000 after buying an additional 71,547 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in Equity Bancshares in the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,809,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in Equity Bancshares by 247.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 23,308 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $953,000 after acquiring an additional 16,595 shares during the period. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC lifted its position in Equity Bancshares by 13.8% during the third quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 119,525 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,886,000 after acquiring an additional 14,540 shares during the last quarter. 71.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EQBK has been the topic of several research reports. Stephens raised Equity Bancshares from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $46.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Equity Bancshares from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Equity Bancshares from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th.

Equity Bancshares Trading Down 3.6 %

Shares of EQBK stock opened at $39.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $609.77 million, a P/E ratio of 36.25 and a beta of 0.90. Equity Bancshares, Inc. has a 1 year low of $30.44 and a 1 year high of $50.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.42.

Equity Bancshares (NASDAQ:EQBK) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.32. Equity Bancshares had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 6.36%. The firm had revenue of $55.35 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.77 million. On average, research analysts predict that Equity Bancshares, Inc. will post 4.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equity Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. Equity Bancshares’s payout ratio is 54.55%.

Equity Bancshares Profile

Equity Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Equity Bank that provides a range of banking, mortgage banking, and financial services to individual and corporate customers. The company accepts various demand, savings, money market, and time deposits. Its loan products include commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, commercial lines of credit, working capital, term, equipment and aircraft financing, acquisition, expansion and development, borrowing base, real estate construction, homebuilder, agricultural, government guaranteed, and other loan products.