Teacher Retirement System of Texas Boosts Stake in Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its holdings in shares of Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) by 99.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,066 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 9,530 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Simmons First National were worth $391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Simmons First National by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,866,647 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $329,742,000 after purchasing an additional 630,376 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Simmons First National by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,616,599 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $168,938,000 after acquiring an additional 51,468 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Simmons First National in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,095,000. FJ Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Simmons First National by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. FJ Capital Management LLC now owns 1,104,008 shares of the bank’s stock worth $24,487,000 after buying an additional 286,622 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Simmons First National by 49.6% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,011,431 shares of the bank’s stock worth $22,434,000 after buying an additional 335,260 shares in the last quarter. 27.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Simmons First National Stock Up 1.0%

Simmons First National stock opened at $19.69 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.97 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $19.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $20.22. Simmons First National Corporation has a 52 week low of $17.20 and a 52 week high of $25.95.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The bank reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $214.18 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $217.21 million. Simmons First National had a net margin of 10.10% and a return on equity of 4.86%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Simmons First National Corporation will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Simmons First National Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a $0.2125 dividend. This represents a $0.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.32%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Simmons First National’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 73.28%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SFNC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler upgraded Simmons First National from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $20.00 to $21.00 in a report on Monday, April 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Simmons First National from $23.00 to $21.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Stephens lowered their price target on shares of Simmons First National from $27.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st.

Simmons First National Company Profile

Simmons First National Corporation operates as the holding company for Simmons Bank that provides banking and other financial products and services to individuals and businesses. The company offers checking, savings, and time deposits; consumer, real estate, and commercial loans; agricultural finance, equipment, and small business administration lending; trust and fiduciary services; credit cards; investment management products; treasury management; insurance products; and securities and investment services.