BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF) Shares Acquired by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF) by 40.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,286 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,400 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in BancFirst were worth $1,679,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new stake in BancFirst in the 4th quarter valued at $218,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in BancFirst by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 108,842 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,958,000 after purchasing an additional 3,594 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in BancFirst by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,306,204 shares of the bank’s stock worth $270,241,000 after purchasing an additional 44,563 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 34,094.7% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 63,944 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,026,000 after acquiring an additional 63,757 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers grew its stake in BancFirst by 16.1% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 72,677 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,985,000 after buying an additional 10,088 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on BANF shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on BancFirst from $123.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. DA Davidson increased their price target on BancFirst from $120.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut BancFirst from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th.

BancFirst Price Performance

NASDAQ BANF opened at $128.87 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $125.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $118.74. The firm has a market cap of $4.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.54 and a beta of 0.77. BancFirst Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $95.78 and a fifty-two week high of $137.40.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The bank reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $169.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $163.62 million. BancFirst had a return on equity of 14.38% and a net margin of 24.05%. On average, analysts anticipate that BancFirst Corporation will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. BancFirst’s payout ratio is 26.47%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Randy Foraker sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.61, for a total value of $506,440.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director F Ford Drummond sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.12, for a total transaction of $620,600.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $744,720. This represents a 45.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 32.43% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.