Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC) saw a significant decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,060,000 shares, a decrease of 15.2% from the February 13th total of 2,430,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 615,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.3 days. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Simmons First National Trading Down 0.2 %

SFNC opened at $20.66 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Simmons First National has a 12 month low of $16.03 and a 12 month high of $25.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.47.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.03. Simmons First National had a return on equity of 5.10% and a net margin of 10.46%. The company had revenue of $208.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $208.67 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. Simmons First National’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Simmons First National will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Simmons First National Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.2125 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Simmons First National’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.11%. Simmons First National’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.25%.

Institutional Trading of Simmons First National

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SFNC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Simmons First National by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,866,647 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $329,742,000 after buying an additional 630,376 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Simmons First National by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,616,599 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $168,938,000 after acquiring an additional 51,468 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Simmons First National by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,992,851 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $64,478,000 after acquiring an additional 37,519 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Simmons First National by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,895,477 shares of the bank’s stock worth $42,042,000 after acquiring an additional 29,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Simmons First National during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,095,000. Institutional investors own 27.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Stephens cut 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.

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.