Barclays PLC Acquires 13,887 Shares of BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF)

Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF - Free Report) by 24.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 70,023 shares of the bank's stock after purchasing an additional 13,887 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.21% of BancFirst worth $8,205,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AlphaQuest LLC lifted its position in shares of BancFirst by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 862 shares of the bank's stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its stake in BancFirst by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 3,214 shares of the bank's stock valued at $338,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in BancFirst by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,085 shares of the bank's stock valued at $244,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of BancFirst by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 15,743 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,845,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,684 shares of the bank's stock worth $197,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.72% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

BancFirst Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:BANF traded down $0.33 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $118.33. The company had a trading volume of 14,297 shares, compared to its average volume of 101,860. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.42. BancFirst Co. has a 12 month low of $81.56 and a 12 month high of $132.29. The stock has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.32 and a beta of 0.82. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.09. BancFirst had a return on equity of 14.21% and a net margin of 23.52%. The company had revenue of $164.84 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $161.72 million. On average, analysts predict that BancFirst Co. will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at BancFirst

In related news, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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. This represents a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director F Ford Drummond sold 5,000 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.97, for a total value of $589,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $707,820. This represents a 45.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 25,000 shares of company stock worth $2,994,350. Insiders own 32.43% of the company's stock.

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.