BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) Short Interest Update

BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) saw a large decrease in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 459,000 shares, a decrease 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. Approximately 2.2% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Activity at BancFirst

In related news, Director Leslie Jeannine Rainbolt sold 2,152 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.47, for a total transaction of $237,731.44. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,942,550 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $546,003,498.50. This represents a 0.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Main Street Banking Partners L sold 778 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total transaction of $85,580.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 4,941,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $543,594,920. This trade represents a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 129,150 shares of company stock worth $15,442,825 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 33.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BancFirst

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BancFirst Trust & Investment Management boosted its position in BancFirst by 50.8% in the third quarter. BancFirst Trust & Investment Management now owns 1,702,082 shares of the bank’s stock worth $177,936,000 after purchasing an additional 573,224 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of BancFirst by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,002,160 shares of the bank’s stock worth $87,888,000 after purchasing an additional 16,664 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 872,101 shares of the bank’s stock worth $92,187,000 after buying an additional 96,483 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in BancFirst by 13.7% during the third 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, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in BancFirst by 16.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 192,320 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,242,000 after buying an additional 26,707 shares during the last quarter. 51.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BancFirst Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BANF opened at $125.38 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.16 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50 day moving average is $118.08 and its 200 day moving average is $104.65. BancFirst has a 12-month low of $81.21 and a 12-month high of $132.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

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

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.58%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BANF shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of BancFirst from $104.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st.

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.