State Street Corp Grows Stake in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF)

State Street Corp raised its stake in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) by 12.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 872,101 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 96,483 shares during the period. State Street Corp’s holdings in BancFirst were worth $92,187,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Retirement Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in BancFirst in the third quarter valued at about $200,000. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BancFirst in the third quarter valued at approximately $210,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in shares of BancFirst by 31.7% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 42,007 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,421,000 after purchasing an additional 10,100 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of BancFirst by 15.8% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 7,657 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $806,000 after purchasing an additional 1,047 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP raised its position in shares of BancFirst by 83.5% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 1,464 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares during the period. 51.72% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at BancFirst

In other 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 value of $237,731.44. Following the transaction, the director now owns 4,942,550 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $546,003,498.50. This represents a 0.04 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Dennis L. Brand sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.50, for a total transaction of $506,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 33,000 shares in the company, valued at $4,174,500. The trade was a 10.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 129,150 shares of company stock valued at $15,442,825 in the last quarter. Insiders own 33.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BANF. DA Davidson boosted their price target 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. StockNews.com raised shares of BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target 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.

BancFirst Stock Performance

BancFirst stock opened at $127.27 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $118.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.22 billion, a PE ratio of 20.46 and a beta of 1.05. BancFirst Co. has a 1-year low of $81.21 and a 1-year high of $132.29.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $163.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. BancFirst had a net margin of 23.52% and a return on equity of 13.92%. As a group, analysts expect that BancFirst Co. 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.58%.

BancFirst 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.