Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 39,359 Shares of BancFirst Corporation $BANF

Vanguard Group Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF) by 1.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,266,845 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 39,359 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 6.82% of BancFirst worth $249,058,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in BancFirst by 37.7% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 28,857 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,381,000 after purchasing an additional 7,904 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in BancFirst by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 4,144 shares of the bank’s stock worth $486,000 after acquiring an additional 360 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of BancFirst by 65.7% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 109,342 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,813,000 after purchasing an additional 43,336 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of BancFirst by 779.4% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 554 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $65,000 after purchasing an additional 491 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in BancFirst by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,085 shares of the bank’s stock worth $244,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at BancFirst

In other BancFirst news, EVP Randy Foraker sold 4,000 shares of BancFirst 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director F Ford Drummond sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.29, for a total transaction of $631,450.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,000 shares in the company, valued at $757,740. This trade represents a 45.45% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 14,000 shares of company stock worth $1,758,490. 32.43% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on BANF shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of BancFirst from $123.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of BancFirst from $120.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st.

BancFirst Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of BancFirst stock opened at $124.99 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $125.51 and a 200 day moving average of $119.63. BancFirst Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $97.02 and a fifty-two week high of $137.40. The company has a market capitalization of $4.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.98 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The bank reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $169.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $163.62 million. BancFirst had a net margin of 24.94% and a return on equity of 14.16%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BancFirst Corporation will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BancFirst Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.47%.

BancFirst Profile

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.