BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) Short Interest Down 10.3% in January

BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) was the recipient of a large decline in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 518,400 shares, a decline of 10.3% from the January 15th total of 577,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 113,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.6 days. Currently, 2.6% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at BancFirst

In other BancFirst news, Director William Scott Martin sold 24,607 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.70, for a total value of $3,068,492.90. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 224,499 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,995,025.30. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Darryl Schmidt sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 43,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,317,421.84. This represents a 10.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 43,607 shares of company stock valued at $5,377,543 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 33.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BancFirst

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 862 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BancFirst by 33.9% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 391 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in BancFirst by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,085 shares of the bank’s stock worth $244,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in BancFirst by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 38,005 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,453,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. 51.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BANF shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price 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. StockNews.com cut shares of BancFirst from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of BancFirst from $104.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st.

BancFirst Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ BANF opened at $119.44 on Monday. 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 52-week low of $81.21 and a 52-week high of $132.29. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $119.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $113.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 1.05.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts forecast that BancFirst will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

BancFirst Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.57%.

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.