Principal Financial Group Inc. Grows Position in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF)

Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) by 40.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 101,276 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,050 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in BancFirst were worth $10,659,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 58.8% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 24,140 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,125,000 after acquiring an additional 8,939 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 87.5% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 21,296 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,874,000 after acquiring an additional 9,936 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 95,076 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,007,000 after buying an additional 3,720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of BancFirst by 499.6% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 57,614 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,053,000 after buying an additional 48,006 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BANF has been the topic of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on BancFirst from $84.50 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com raised BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on BancFirst from $104.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William Scott Martin sold 25,000 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.00, for a total value of $3,075,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 249,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,640,038. This trade represents a 9.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Randy Foraker sold 2,870 shares of BancFirst stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.10, for a total value of $307,377.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 157,107 shares of company stock worth $17,847,219 in the last ninety days. 33.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

BancFirst Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BANF opened at $121.78 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $109.61 and its 200 day moving average is $99.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. BancFirst Co. has a 1-year low of $81.21 and a 1-year high of $129.00. The stock has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.58 and a beta of 1.02.

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

BancFirst Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. This is a positive change from BancFirst’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.43. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. BancFirst’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.58%.

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.