Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Stock Position in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF)

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its holdings in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 58,100 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 148 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.18% of BancFirst worth $6,808,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BANF. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in BancFirst by 155.3% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 314 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 862 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 85.6% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,162 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $136,000 after purchasing an additional 536 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings in BancFirst by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,684 shares of the bank’s stock worth $197,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp bought a new stake in BancFirst in the 4th quarter worth approximately $205,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th.

BancFirst Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of BANF stock opened at $109.54 on Friday. BancFirst Co. has a 1 year low of $81.56 and a 1 year high of $132.29. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $111.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $115.74. The company has a market cap of $3.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.01 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 (NASDAQ:BANF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $164.84 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $161.72 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that BancFirst Co. will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current year.

BancFirst Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given 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 1.68%. BancFirst’s payout ratio is currently 27.84%.

Insider Transactions at BancFirst

In other news, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 214,499 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 available at this hyperlink. Also, Director F Ford Drummond sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 6,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $723,480. This represents a 45.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,994,350 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 32.43% 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.