Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. Takes $5.75 Million Position in Simmons First National Corporation $SFNC

Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. purchased a new stake in Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ:SFNC) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 300,000 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $5,751,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Simmons First National by 197.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,663 shares of the bank’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 1,104 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Simmons First National by 42.5% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,175 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 649 shares during the last quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Simmons First National by 32.0% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 2,658 shares of the bank’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 644 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Simmons First National by 24.3% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,260 shares of the bank’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 834 shares during the period. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of Simmons First National by 68.4% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,938 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 2,412 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SFNC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Simmons First National from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Simmons First National from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Simmons First National in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Simmons First National from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.43.

Simmons First National Price Performance

Shares of SFNC stock opened at $18.61 on Friday. Simmons First National Corporation has a 52-week low of $17.00 and a 52-week high of $22.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.72 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $20.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.45.

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

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

Simmons First National Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.215 per share. This is an increase from Simmons First National’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Simmons First National’s payout ratio is presently -30.69%.

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.