BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Monday.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of BancFirst from $117.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

BancFirst Trading Down 2.9 %

NASDAQ BANF opened at $114.96 on Monday. BancFirst has a one year low of $81.21 and a one year high of $132.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $118.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $114.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.85 and a beta of 1.05.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts expect that BancFirst will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director F Ford Drummond sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.97, for a total value of $589,850.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,000 shares in the company, valued at $707,820. This trade represents a 45.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.13, for a total value of $1,191,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 214,499 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,553,265.87. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,000 shares of company stock worth $3,500,350 over the last three months. 33.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of BancFirst

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BancFirst in the 4th quarter worth about $26,649,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in BancFirst during the fourth quarter worth $11,958,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in BancFirst by 12.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 872,101 shares of the bank’s stock worth $92,187,000 after purchasing 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of BancFirst by 35.8% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 175,457 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,560,000 after purchasing an additional 46,253 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

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.