BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday.

BancFirst Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BANF opened at $127.41 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $4.24 billion, a PE ratio of 19.78 and a beta of 0.78. BancFirst has a twelve month low of $81.56 and a twelve month high of $132.29. The company’s 50 day moving average is $111.97 and its 200 day moving average is $117.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $164.84 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.72 million. BancFirst had a net margin of 23.52% and a return on equity of 14.21%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BancFirst will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

BancFirst Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.44%. BancFirst’s payout ratio is 27.84%.

Insider Transactions at BancFirst

In other news, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.13, for a total transaction of $1,191,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 214,499 shares in the company, valued at $25,553,265.87. This trade represents a 4.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 32.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cibc World Markets Corp purchased a new position in shares of BancFirst during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $218,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in BancFirst by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,306,204 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $270,241,000 after purchasing an additional 44,563 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in BancFirst by 40.2% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 101,276 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,659,000 after purchasing an additional 29,050 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in BancFirst by 189.8% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 10,514 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,200,000 after purchasing an additional 6,886 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in BancFirst in the 4th quarter valued at $529,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

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.