BancFirst Co. (BANF) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.46 on April 15th

BancFirst Co. (NASDAQ:BANF) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.46 per share by the bank on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st.

BancFirst has raised its dividend by an average of 8.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 31 consecutive years. BancFirst has a payout ratio of 28.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BancFirst to earn $6.10 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 30.2%.

BancFirst Trading Down 1.7 %

BANF traded down $1.93 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $109.51. 56,497 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 98,318. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.00 and a beta of 1.03. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $116.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $115.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. BancFirst has a 1-year low of $81.21 and a 1-year high of $132.29.

BancFirst (NASDAQ:BANF) last announced its earnings results 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 return on equity of 14.21% and a net margin of 23.52%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that BancFirst will post 6.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Darryl Schmidt sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.06, for a total transaction of $610,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,317,421.84. This trade represents a 10.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director William Scott Martin sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 4.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,994,350 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 33.89% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BANF has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded BancFirst from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of BancFirst from $117.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

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.