Simmons First National Corporation $SFNC Shares Purchased by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,419,609 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,763,161 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.35% of Simmons First National worth $314,764,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in Simmons First National by 27.2% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 88,632 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,820,000 after acquiring an additional 18,933 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Simmons First National by 271.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 158,856 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,261,000 after acquiring an additional 116,072 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in Simmons First National by 4.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 73,861 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,516,000 after buying an additional 3,221 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Simmons First National by 3,624.6% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 13,036 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $268,000 after buying an additional 12,686 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in shares of Simmons First National by 1,288.2% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 18,046 shares of the bank’s stock worth $411,000 after buying an additional 16,746 shares during the period. 27.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Simmons First National Trading Down 6.2%

Shares of Simmons First National stock opened at $19.91 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.49. Simmons First National Corporation has a 12-month low of $17.00 and a 12-month high of $22.34. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.19 and a beta of 0.93.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 20th. The bank reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $249.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.68 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Simmons First National Corporation will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Simmons First National announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, February 17th that authorizes the company to buyback $175.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the bank to reacquire up to 5.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Simmons First National Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.215 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Simmons First National’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. Simmons First National’s payout ratio is presently -30.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Simmons First National from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Simmons First National from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $23.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Simmons First National from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.43.

Simmons First National Company 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.