How to buy Southern First Bancshares stock

Southern First Bancshares, Inc is a banks-regional business based in the US. Southern First Bancshares shares (SFST) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars.

How to buy shares in Southern First Bancshares

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Southern First Bancshares. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: SFST. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Southern First Bancshares reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Southern First Bancshares, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Southern First Bancshares. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Southern First Bancshares share price

Use our graph to track the performance of SFST stocks over time.

Southern First Bancshares shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-02-23.

52-week range	USD$20.89 - USD$44.07
50-day moving average	USD$40.0938
200-day moving average	USD$31.6553
Wall St. target price	USD$46.67
PE ratio	18.547
Dividend yield	N/A (0%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$2.34

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Is it a good time to buy Southern First Bancshares stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Southern First Bancshares, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Southern First Bancshares financials

Revenue TTM	USD$77.6 million
Operating margin TTM	34.1%
Gross profit TTM	USD$77.6 million
Return on assets TTM	0.77%
Return on equity TTM	8.44%
Profit margin	23.62%
Book value	$29.37
Market capitalisation	USD$335.8 million

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Southern First Bancshares shares

There are currently 80,680 Southern First Bancshares shares held short by investors – that's known as Southern First Bancshares's "short interest". This figure is 11.4% up from 72,395 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Southern First Bancshares shares can be evaluated.

Southern First Bancshares's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Southern First Bancshares's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Southern First Bancshares shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Southern First Bancshares shares traded daily (recently around 24374.622356495). Southern First Bancshares's SIR currently stands at 3.31. In other words for every 100,000 Southern First Bancshares shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3310 shares are currently held short.

However Southern First Bancshares's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Southern First Bancshares shares, or, against the total number of tradable Southern First Bancshares shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Southern First Bancshares's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Southern First Bancshares shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0112% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Southern First Bancshares shares, roughly 11 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Southern First Bancshares.

Find out more about how you can short Southern First Bancshares stock.

Have Southern First Bancshares's shares ever split?

Southern First Bancshares's shares were split on a 11:10 basis on 30 January 2013. So if you had owned 10 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 11 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Southern First Bancshares shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 9.1% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Southern First Bancshares shares which in turn could have impacted Southern First Bancshares's share price.

Southern First Bancshares share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Southern First Bancshares's shares have ranged in value from as little as $20.89 up to $44.07. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Southern First Bancshares's is 1.0667. This would suggest that Southern First Bancshares's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Southern First Bancshares overview

Southern First Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Southern First Bank that provides various banking products and services to general public in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. It accepts various deposit products that include checking accounts, commercial checking accounts, savings accounts, and other time deposits, including daily money market accounts and long-term certificates of deposit. The company's loan portfolio comprises commercial real estate loans; construction real estate loans; commercial business loans for various lines of businesses, such as the manufacturing, service industry, and professional service areas; consumer real estate and home equity loans; and other consumer loans, including secured and unsecured installment loans and revolving lines of credit. In addition, it provides other bank services, such as internet banking, cash management, safe deposit boxes, direct deposit, automatic drafts, bill payment, and mobile banking services. The company operates through ten retail offices located in Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston; two retail offices located in Raleigh and Greensboro markets; and one retail office located in Atlanta. Southern First Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Southern First Bancshares is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 7.671% of Southern First Bancshares shares are held by insiders and 77.834% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for Southern First Bancshares?

  Southern First Bancshares's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Southern First Bancshares based?

  Southern First Bancshares's address is: 100 Verdae Boulevard, Greenville, SC, United States, 29607

• What is Southern First Bancshares's ISIN number?

  Southern First Bancshares's international securities identification number is: US8428731017

• What is Southern First Bancshares's CUSIP number?

  Southern First Bancshares's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 39607Y100