Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 845 Shares of BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System cut its position in BancFirst Corporation (NASDAQ:BANF) by 12.6% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,846 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 845 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in BancFirst were worth $642,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BANF. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in BancFirst by 211.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 582 shares of the bank’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its stake in BancFirst by 779.4% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 554 shares of the bank’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of BancFirst in the 4th quarter worth about $135,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BancFirst in the 1st quarter worth about $181,000. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BancFirst in the 4th quarter worth about $203,000. 51.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BANF has been the subject of a number of research reports. DA Davidson upped their price objective on BancFirst from $120.00 to $136.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on BancFirst from $123.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th.

BancFirst Trading Up 1.4%

NASDAQ BANF opened at $126.68 on Thursday. BancFirst Corporation has a 1-year low of $97.02 and a 1-year high of $137.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $125.38 and a 200-day moving average of $119.52. The firm has a market cap of $4.22 billion, a PE ratio of 18.23 and a beta of 0.76.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The bank reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.18. BancFirst had a return on equity of 14.16% and a net margin of 24.94%. The company had revenue of $169.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $163.62 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that BancFirst Corporation will post 6.52 EPS for the current year.

BancFirst Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BancFirst news, EVP Randy Foraker sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.61, for a total transaction of $506,440.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director F Ford Drummond sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.12, for a total value of $620,600.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $744,720. The trade was a 45.45% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.