Stock Repurchase Plan Authorized by Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) Board

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, February 17th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $175.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to repurchase up to 5.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on SFNC shares. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Simmons First National from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Robert W. Baird raised Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Simmons First National from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on Simmons First National from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Simmons First National presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.43.

Simmons First National Price Performance

Shares of SFNC opened at $21.29 on Wednesday. Simmons First National has a 52 week low of $17.00 and a 52 week high of $22.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $3.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.69 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $19.93 and a 200-day moving average of $19.39.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 20th. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $249.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.68 million. Simmons First National had a positive return on equity of 6.73% and a negative net margin of 27.83%.The business’s revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Simmons First National will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Simmons First National Company Profile

Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) is a bank holding company headquartered in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Through its primary operating subsidiary, Simmons Bank, the company maintains a network of more than 200 branches across Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina. Simmons First National offers a full suite of financial services to individuals, small businesses and commercial clients, emphasizing relationship-driven community banking.

The company’s core business activities span deposit-taking, lending and payment services.