First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FGBI) Short Interest Up 9.5% in January

First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FGBI) saw a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,700 shares, an increase of 9.5% from the December 31st total of 11,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.1 days. Currently, 0.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Guaranty Bancshares

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in First Guaranty Bancshares during the second quarter valued at $138,000. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of First Guaranty Bancshares by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 40,338 shares of the bank’s stock worth $430,000 after purchasing an additional 2,010 shares during the period. Fourthstone LLC bought a new position in First Guaranty Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at about $366,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in First Guaranty Bancshares by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 68,788 shares of the bank’s stock worth $733,000 after purchasing an additional 5,070 shares during the period. Finally, Arkadios Wealth Advisors bought a new stake in First Guaranty Bancshares in the fourth quarter worth about $122,000. 39.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

First Guaranty Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FGBI opened at $10.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $128.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.24 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $11.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.05. First Guaranty Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $8.39 and a fifty-two week high of $15.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

First Guaranty Bancshares (NASDAQ:FGBI) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The bank reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by ($0.13). First Guaranty Bancshares had a return on equity of 5.78% and a net margin of 5.32%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that First Guaranty Bancshares will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Guaranty Bancshares Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were given a dividend of $0.01 per share. This represents a $0.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. First Guaranty Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is 4.76%.

First Guaranty Bancshares Company Profile

First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc operates as the holding company for First Guaranty Bank that provides commercial banking services in Louisiana and Texas. It offers various deposit products, including personal and business checking, savings, money market, and demand accounts, as well as time deposits to consumers, small businesses, and municipalities.