Handelsbanken Fonder AB Acquires 700 Shares of BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in shares of BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) by 16.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,958 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in BancFirst were worth $581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BANF. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in BancFirst by 33.9% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 391 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in BancFirst by 31.5% during the 3rd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 9,600 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,010,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in BancFirst by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 11,306 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,189,000 after purchasing an additional 2,783 shares in the last quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in BancFirst by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 4,237 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $446,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rosenthal Henry Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of BancFirst by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Rosenthal Henry Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 28,002 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,947,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at BancFirst

In other news, EVP Darryl Schmidt sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.06, for a total value of $610,300.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,317,421.84. This represents a 10.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now owns 214,499 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,553,265.87. This trade represents a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 29,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,500,350. 33.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

BancFirst Price Performance

NASDAQ BANF opened at $119.36 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.95 billion, a PE ratio of 18.53 and a beta of 1.05. BancFirst Co. has a 52 week low of $81.21 and a 52 week high of $132.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $118.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $114.71.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.61 by $0.07. BancFirst had a net margin of 23.52% and a return on equity of 14.21%. Research analysts predict that BancFirst Co. will post 6.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on BANF shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of BancFirst from $117.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of BancFirst from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th.

BancFirst 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.