Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Cuts Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) Price Target to $21.00

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) had its price target decreased by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $22.00 to $21.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the bank’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on SFNC. Zacks Research downgraded Simmons First National from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Simmons First National from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Simmons First National in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on Simmons First National from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.50.

Simmons First National Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of SFNC stock opened at $17.75 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.06 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. Simmons First National has a fifty-two week low of $17.20 and a fifty-two week high of $25.95.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The bank reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $232.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $103.26 million. Simmons First National had a positive return on equity of 5.84% and a negative net margin of 29.70%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.37 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Simmons First National will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Simmons First National Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were given a dividend of $0.2125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. This represents a $0.85 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. Simmons First National’s payout ratio is presently -29.01%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Russell William Teubner bought 9,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were bought at an average price of $18.62 per share, with a total value of $171,304.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 53,220 shares in the company, valued at approximately $990,956.40. This represents a 20.90% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.44% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SFNC. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Simmons First National by 2.7% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 691,328 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,193,000 after purchasing an additional 17,888 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Simmons First National by 18.7% in the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,231 shares of the bank’s stock worth $148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Simmons First National in the first quarter worth $318,000. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in Simmons First National by 156.9% in the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 42,193 shares of the bank’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 25,771 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in Simmons First National by 7.6% in the second quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 74,955 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,420,000 after purchasing an additional 5,298 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.58% of the company’s stock.

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.