Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) Rating Increased to Overweight at Stephens

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) was upgraded by analysts at Stephens from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $28.00 target price on the bank’s stock, up from their previous target price of $27.00. Stephens’ price target suggests a potential upside of 21.16% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Simmons First National from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Simmons First National from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Simmons First National has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.00.

Simmons First National Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Simmons First National stock opened at $23.11 on Monday. Simmons First National has a 1 year low of $13.36 and a 1 year high of $23.74. The firm has a market cap of $2.90 billion, a PE ratio of 22.66 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $21.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.32.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.04. Simmons First National had a net margin of 10.49% and a return on equity of 5.33%. The business had revenue of $203.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $204.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. Simmons First National’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Simmons First National will post 1.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO David W. Garner sold 3,600 shares of Simmons First National stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.21, for a total value of $76,356.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 64,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,377,928.86. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CAO David W. Garner sold 3,600 shares of Simmons First National stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.21, for a total value of $76,356.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 64,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,377,928.86. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Chairman George Makris, Jr. sold 21,420 shares of Simmons First National stock in a transaction on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.58, for a total transaction of $462,243.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 608,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,128,128.26. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 33,700 shares of company stock valued at $728,952 over the last three months. 1.91% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Simmons First National by 6.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,323,934 shares of the bank’s stock worth $128,752,000 after buying an additional 413,459 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its position in Simmons First National by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 1,677,924 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,498,000 after purchasing an additional 59,495 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Simmons First National by 9,443.9% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,395,980 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $24,541,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381,353 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Simmons First National by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 992,678 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $19,695,000 after purchasing an additional 349,534 shares during the period. Finally, Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Simmons First National by 28.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mesirow Institutional Investment Management Inc. now owns 705,138 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,396,000 after purchasing an additional 154,128 shares during the period. 27.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Simmons First National Company Profile

Simmons First National Corporation operates as the holding company for Simmons Bank that provides banking and other financial products and services to individuals and businesses. The company offers checking, savings, and time deposits; consumer, real estate, and commercial loans; agricultural finance, equipment, and small business administration lending; trust and fiduciary services; credit cards; investment management products; treasury management; insurance products; and securities and investment services.