SB Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBFG) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

by · The Markets Daily

SB Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBFG – Get Free Report) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totaling 37,080 shares, a decrease of 70.4% from the June 15th total of 125,380 shares. Approximately 0.6% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 131,049 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SBFG. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of SB Financial Group by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 197,772 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,153,000 after purchasing an additional 5,677 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of SB Financial Group by 98.3% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 148,786 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,842,000 after buying an additional 73,771 shares during the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of SB Financial Group by 3.8% in the third quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 81,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,572,000 after buying an additional 2,963 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of SB Financial Group by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 66,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after buying an additional 2,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in SB Financial Group by 23.8% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 51,019 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,136,000 after buying an additional 9,820 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.67% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on SBFG shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of SB Financial Group in a report on Friday, June 26th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of SB Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

View Our Latest Report on SB Financial Group

SB Financial Group Stock Up 1.7%

NASDAQ:SBFG traded up $0.45 on Friday, hitting $26.27. 16,604 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 80,526. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $22.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.94. SB Financial Group has a 52 week low of $18.16 and a 52 week high of $26.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The company has a market cap of $164.98 million, a P/E ratio of 10.26 and a beta of 0.19.

SB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SBFG – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $17.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.60 million. SB Financial Group had a return on equity of 11.52% and a net margin of 17.22%. As a group, analysts expect that SB Financial Group will post 2.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

SB Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from SB Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. SB Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 25.00%.

SB Financial Group Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

SB Financial Group, Inc (NASDAQ: SBFG) is the bank holding company for Star Financial Bank, a full-service community bank headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, the company offers a broad portfolio of commercial and consumer banking products, including deposit accounts, lending solutions, mortgage origination and servicing, and cash management services.

In its commercial banking division, SB Financial Group provides working capital loans, equipment financing, commercial real estate lending and treasury management solutions designed for small- and mid-sized businesses.

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