American Century Companies Inc. Increases Stock Position in BancFirst Corporation $BANF

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF) by 648.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 164,160 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 142,232 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.49% of BancFirst worth $20,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in BancFirst during the first quarter worth $210,000. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in shares of BancFirst by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 5,608 shares of the bank’s stock worth $616,000 after purchasing an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Argent Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of BancFirst during the 1st quarter worth $213,000. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of BancFirst by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 19,201 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,110,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of BancFirst in the 1st quarter valued at about $6,912,000. 51.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on BANF. Zacks Research downgraded shares of BancFirst from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of BancFirst from $132.00 to $120.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of BancFirst in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded BancFirst from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $128.00.

BancFirst Stock Up 0.1%

BANF stock opened at $110.98 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $116.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $123.25. BancFirst Corporation has a 12 month low of $97.02 and a 12 month high of $138.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a PE ratio of 15.74 and a beta of 0.78.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $175.48 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $174.60 million. BancFirst had a net margin of 24.94% and a return on equity of 14.19%. Equities analysts expect that BancFirst Corporation will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.49 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.80%.

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.