BNP Paribas Financial Markets Raises Stake in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) by 15.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,657 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,047 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in BancFirst were worth $806,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of BancFirst by 33.9% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 391 shares of the bank’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of BancFirst by 1.4% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 7,300 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $640,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of BancFirst by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 5,993 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $526,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co grew its stake in shares of BancFirst by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,972 shares of the bank’s stock worth $436,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the period. Finally, SummerHaven Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in BancFirst by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 7,943 shares of the bank’s stock worth $697,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on BANF. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of BancFirst from $104.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of BancFirst from $117.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling at BancFirst

In other BancFirst news, Director William Scott Martin sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.50, for a total transaction of $567,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 306,904 shares in the company, valued at $34,833,604. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Main Street Banking Partners L sold 778 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $85,580.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,941,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $543,594,920. This trade represents a 0.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 135,521 shares of company stock valued at $16,025,988 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 33.89% of the company’s stock.

BancFirst Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of BANF opened at $128.64 on Thursday. BancFirst Co. has a twelve month low of $81.21 and a twelve month high of $132.29. The stock has a market cap of $4.26 billion, a PE ratio of 20.68 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $117.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $103.98.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $163.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. BancFirst had a net margin of 23.52% and a return on equity of 13.92%. On average, equities analysts forecast that BancFirst Co. will post 6.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.58%.

About BancFirst

BancFirst Corporation operates as the bank holding company for BancFirst that provides a range of commercial banking services to retail customers, and small to medium-sized businesses. The company operates through BancFirst Metropolitan Banks, BancFirst Community Banks, Pegasus, Worthington, and Other Financial Services segments.