BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) Short Interest Down 7.3% in November

BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 459,000 shares, a decline of 7.3% from the November 15th total of 495,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 117,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days. Currently, 2.2% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. DA Davidson raised their price objective on BancFirst from $104.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com raised BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on BancFirst from $117.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Main Street Banking Partners L sold 778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total value of $85,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,941,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $543,594,920. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Dennis L. Brand sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.50, for a total transaction of $506,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 33,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,174,500. The trade was a 10.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 129,150 shares of company stock worth $15,442,825. Corporate insiders own 33.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arvest Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in BancFirst in the third quarter valued at about $1,219,000. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BancFirst during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,766,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 3,214 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $338,000 after buying an additional 110 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 482,785 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $50,823,000 after buying an additional 58,016 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 94.6% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 56,136 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,908,000 after buying an additional 27,295 shares in the last quarter. 51.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BancFirst Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BANF opened at $123.86 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. BancFirst has a one year low of $81.21 and a one year high of $132.29. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $119.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $105.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.91 and a beta of 1.05.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.18. BancFirst had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 23.52%. The business had revenue of $163.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. On average, analysts predict that BancFirst will post 6.37 EPS for the current year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.58%.

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.