FB Financial Co. (NYSE:FBK) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

FB Financial Co. (NYSE:FBK) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 574,700 shares, an increase of 5.1% from the November 15th total of 546,800 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 150,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.8 days. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FBK has been the topic of a number of research reports. Hovde Group lowered shares of FB Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com cut FB Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on FB Financial from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other FB Financial news, major shareholder James W. Ayers acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $48.13 per share, for a total transaction of $96,260.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 10,902,341 shares in the company, valued at $524,729,672.33. This represents a 0.02 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James W. Iv Cross sold 5,000 shares of FB Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.22, for a total value of $291,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 54,078 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,148,421.16. This represents a 8.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 13,000 shares of company stock valued at $658,460 over the last three months. 1.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FB Financial

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of FB Financial in the 3rd quarter worth $47,000. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in FB Financial in the 3rd quarter worth about $84,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in FB Financial in the 3rd quarter worth about $110,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in FB Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at about $124,000. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of FB Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at about $201,000. Institutional investors own 65.40% of the company’s stock.

FB Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FBK opened at $54.80 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $53.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.59. FB Financial has a fifty-two week low of $33.35 and a fifty-two week high of $58.88. The company has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.93 and a beta of 1.15.

FB Financial (NYSE:FBK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $169.13 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $127.44 million. FB Financial had a return on equity of 10.38% and a net margin of 14.40%. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that FB Financial will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FB Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 5th. FB Financial’s payout ratio is 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.