BancFirst Co. (BANF) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 31st

BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.46 per share by the bank on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st.

BancFirst has raised its dividend by an average of 7.9% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 31 years. BancFirst has a dividend payout ratio of 29.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BancFirst to earn $6.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.84 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.1%.

BancFirst Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ BANF opened at $119.89 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $120.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.86. BancFirst has a twelve month low of $81.21 and a twelve month high of $132.29. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a PE ratio of 19.27 and a beta of 1.05.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.18. BancFirst had a net margin of 23.52% and a return on equity of 13.92%. The company had revenue of $163.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.70 million. On average, equities analysts forecast that BancFirst will post 6.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at BancFirst

In other news, major shareholder Main Street Banking Partners L sold 778 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.00, for a total transaction of $85,580.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 4,941,772 shares in the company, valued at approximately $543,594,920. The trade was a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Dennis Jay Hannah sold 10,543 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.58, for a total value of $1,334,532.94. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 1,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $197,971.12. This represents a 87.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 129,150 shares of company stock valued at $15,442,825 over the last quarter. 33.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on BANF. StockNews.com upgraded shares of BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on BancFirst from $117.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on BancFirst from $104.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st.

About BancFirst

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.