BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) Downgraded by StockNews.com to "Sell"

StockNews.com cut shares of BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF - Free Report) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report released on Tuesday morning.

BancFirst Trading Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ BANF traded down $1.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $118.12. The company's stock had a trading volume of 82,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 102,317. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.34 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. BancFirst has a 52-week low of $81.56 and a 52-week high of $132.29. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $111.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.24.

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

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. BancFirst's payout ratio is currently 27.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.13, for a total transaction of $1,191,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 214,499 shares in the company, valued at $25,553,265.87. This trade represents a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Darryl Schmidt sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.06, for a total value of $610,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,564 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,317,421.84. This trade represents a 10.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,000 shares of company stock worth $2,994,350 in the last 90 days. 32.43% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of BancFirst

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BANF. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in BancFirst by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,306,204 shares of the bank's stock valued at $270,241,000 after acquiring an additional 44,563 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in BancFirst by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 484,883 shares of the bank's stock worth $56,832,000 after purchasing an additional 2,098 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in BancFirst in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,649,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in BancFirst by 35.8% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 175,457 shares of the bank's stock valued at $20,560,000 after buying an additional 46,253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in BancFirst by 65.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 109,342 shares of the bank's stock worth $12,813,000 after buying an additional 43,336 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.