Simmons First National Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.21 (NASDAQ:SFNC)

Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 23rd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.21 per share by the bank on Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th.

Simmons First National has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Simmons First National has a dividend payout ratio of 55.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Simmons First National to earn $1.52 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 55.3%.

Simmons First National Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ SFNC opened at $20.33 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Simmons First National has a 12 month low of $13.36 and a 12 month high of $22.29. The stock has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.29 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $20.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.76.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.02. Simmons First National had a return on equity of 5.33% and a net margin of 10.49%. The company had revenue of $372.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $197.30 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Simmons First National will post 1.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Simmons First National

In related news, Chairman George Makris, Jr. sold 21,420 shares of Simmons First National stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.58, for a total transaction of $462,243.60. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 608,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,128,128.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, Chairman George Makris, Jr. sold 21,420 shares of Simmons First National stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.58, for a total transaction of $462,243.60. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 608,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,128,128.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Robert A. Fehlman sold 8,680 shares of Simmons First National stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.93, for a total value of $190,352.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 156,357 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,428,909.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,700 shares of company stock valued at $728,952 over the last quarter. 1.91% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SFNC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Simmons First National from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com downgraded Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 2nd. Stephens increased their target price on Simmons First National from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Simmons First National from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.75.

About Simmons First National

Simmons First National Corporation operates as the holding company for Simmons Bank that provides banking and other financial products and services to individuals and businesses. The company offers checking, savings, and time deposits; consumer, real estate, and commercial loans; agricultural finance, equipment, and small business administration lending; trust and fiduciary services; credit cards; investment management products; treasury management; insurance products; and securities and investment services.