Jones Financial Companies Lllp Invests $29,000 in Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in shares of Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 1,300 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $29,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of SFNC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Simmons First National by 33.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 676,171 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,565,000 after acquiring an additional 170,821 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Simmons First National by 131.4% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 247,821 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,337,000 after acquiring an additional 140,738 shares during the period. Dean Investment Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Simmons First National by 231.6% during the 3rd quarter. Dean Investment Associates LLC now owns 137,352 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,959,000 after acquiring an additional 95,928 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Simmons First National by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,866,142 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $40,197,000 after acquiring an additional 65,992 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Simmons First National during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,339,000. 27.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Stephens lowered their price objective on Simmons First National from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd.

Simmons First National Trading Down 0.2 %

SFNC opened at $20.66 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.47. Simmons First National Co. has a 1-year low of $16.03 and a 1-year high of $25.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 0.84.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.03. Simmons First National had a net margin of 10.46% and a return on equity of 5.10%. The business had revenue of $208.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.67 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Simmons First National Co. will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Simmons First National Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.2125 dividend. This is a positive change from Simmons First National’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.11%. Simmons First National’s payout ratio is presently 70.25%.

About Simmons First National

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.