Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC) Short Interest Update

Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,060,000 shares, a decline of 15.2% from the February 13th total of 2,430,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 615,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days. Currently, 1.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Simmons First National

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp purchased a new stake in Simmons First National during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Simmons First National during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Simmons First National during the fourth quarter worth about $47,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Simmons First National by 168.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 1,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Simmons First National by 813.8% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 3,911 shares of the bank’s stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 3,483 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stephens dropped their price objective on shares of Simmons First National from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd.

Simmons First National Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Simmons First National stock opened at $20.63 on Tuesday. Simmons First National has a 52-week low of $16.03 and a 52-week high of $25.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.49. The firm has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.05 and a beta of 0.84.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. Simmons First National had a net margin of 10.46% and a return on equity of 5.10%. The business had revenue of $208.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.67 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Simmons First National will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Simmons First National Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.2125 per share. This represents a $0.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.12%. This is a positive change from Simmons First National’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Simmons First National’s payout ratio is 70.25%.

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.