BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of BancFirst from $117.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

BancFirst Stock Performance

BancFirst stock opened at $115.17 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $118.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $115.02. The company has a market cap of $3.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.88 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. BancFirst has a fifty-two week low of $81.21 and a fifty-two week high of $132.29.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.07. BancFirst had a net margin of 23.52% and a return on equity of 14.21%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BancFirst will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. BancFirst’s payout ratio is presently 28.57%.

Insider Buying and Selling at BancFirst

In other BancFirst news, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.13, for a total value of $1,191,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 214,499 shares in the company, valued at $25,553,265.87. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Darryl Schmidt sold 5,000 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.06, for a total transaction of $610,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 43,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,317,421.84. This trade represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,000 shares of company stock worth $3,500,350 over the last ninety days. 33.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BancFirst

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 155.3% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 314 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 779.4% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 554 shares of the bank’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 862 shares of the bank’s stock worth $101,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BancFirst in the fourth quarter worth $135,000. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 85.6% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,162 shares of the bank’s stock worth $136,000 after buying an additional 536 shares during the last quarter. 51.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.