BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) Short Interest Down 16.8% in April

BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 615,000 shares, a decrease of 16.8% from the March 31st total of 739,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 116,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.3 days. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at BancFirst

In other news, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $25,553,265.87. This represents a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director F Ford Drummond sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.58, for a total value of $602,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $723,480. The trade was a 45.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,000 shares of company stock worth $2,404,500. 32.43% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BancFirst

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BANF. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its holdings in BancFirst by 40.4% in the first quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 15,286 shares of the bank's stock valued at $1,679,000 after purchasing an additional 4,400 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in BancFirst by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,206 shares of the bank's stock worth $3,209,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in BancFirst by 3.4% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 108,842 shares of the bank's stock worth $11,958,000 after acquiring an additional 3,594 shares during the period. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in BancFirst during the first quarter valued at $220,000. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of BancFirst by 6.0% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 10,904 shares of the bank's stock valued at $1,198,000 after purchasing an additional 618 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.72% of the company's stock.

BancFirst Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of BANF stock opened at $119.03 on Friday. BancFirst has a twelve month low of $81.56 and a twelve month high of $132.29. The stock has a market cap of $3.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.48 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $111.19 and a 200 day moving average of $116.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.58 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $164.84 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $161.72 million. BancFirst had a net margin of 23.52% and a return on equity of 14.21%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BancFirst will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

BancFirst Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. BancFirst's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.84%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of BancFirst from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd.

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.

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