41,466 Shares in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) Acquired by Great Lakes Advisors LLC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 41,466 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $4,859,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 872,101 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $92,187,000 after purchasing an additional 96,483 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of BancFirst by 13.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 482,785 shares of the bank’s stock worth $50,823,000 after acquiring an additional 58,016 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of BancFirst by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 192,320 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $20,242,000 after purchasing an additional 26,707 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in BancFirst by 33.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 129,204 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,599,000 after purchasing an additional 32,636 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in BancFirst by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 105,248 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,333,000 after purchasing an additional 3,972 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

BancFirst Price Performance

Shares of BancFirst stock opened at $109.24 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.96 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $117.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $115.28. BancFirst Co. has a 12 month low of $81.21 and a 12 month high of $132.29. 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 (NASDAQ:BANF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.07. BancFirst had a return on equity of 14.21% and a net margin of 23.52%. As a group, analysts predict that BancFirst Co. will post 6.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BANF. StockNews.com upgraded BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of 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, EVP Darryl Schmidt sold 5,000 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.06, for a total transaction of $610,300.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,317,421.84. This trade represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 214,499 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,553,265.87. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 25,000 shares of company stock worth $2,994,350. 33.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BancFirst Company 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.