Simmons First National Corporation $SFNC Shares Purchased by Dean Capital Management

Dean Capital Management boosted its stake in Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) by 173.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 52,891 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 33,548 shares during the quarter. Dean Capital Management’s holdings in Simmons First National were worth $1,014,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of Simmons First National by 27.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 88,632 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,820,000 after acquiring an additional 18,933 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Simmons First National by 271.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 158,856 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,261,000 after acquiring an additional 116,072 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Simmons First National by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 73,861 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,516,000 after acquiring an additional 3,221 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in Simmons First National by 3,624.6% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 13,036 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $268,000 after purchasing an additional 12,686 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Simmons First National by 1,288.2% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 18,046 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $411,000 after purchasing an additional 16,746 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SFNC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Simmons First National from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Simmons First National in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Simmons First National from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Zacks Research upgraded Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised Simmons First National from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $23.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Simmons First National currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.43.

Simmons First National Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of SFNC opened at $18.61 on Monday. Simmons First National Corporation has a twelve month low of $17.00 and a twelve month high of $22.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.72 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $20.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.43.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 20th. The bank reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.05. Simmons First National had a positive return on equity of 6.73% and a negative net margin of 27.83%.The company had revenue of $249.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.68 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.39 earnings per share. Simmons First National’s quarterly revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Simmons First National Corporation will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Simmons First National declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, February 17th that allows the company to repurchase $175.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the bank to purchase up to 5.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Simmons First National Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.215 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $0.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. This is a boost from Simmons First National’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Simmons First National’s dividend payout ratio is currently -31.05%.

Simmons First National Profile

Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) is a bank holding company headquartered in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Through its primary operating subsidiary, Simmons Bank, the company maintains a network of more than 200 branches across Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina. Simmons First National offers a full suite of financial services to individuals, small businesses and commercial clients, emphasizing relationship-driven community banking.

The company’s core business activities span deposit-taking, lending and payment services.