Retirement Investment Advisors Inc. Purchases 7,392 Shares of Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC)

Retirement Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Simmons First National Co. (NASDAQ:SFNC) by 97.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,000 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 7,392 shares during the period. Retirement Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Simmons First National were worth $333,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp purchased a new position in Simmons First National during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Simmons First National by 168.3% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,144 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 1,345 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Simmons First National by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 6,091 shares of the bank’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 1,443 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Simmons First National by 5.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,778 shares of the bank’s stock worth $168,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Simmons First National during the fourth quarter valued at about $212,000. 27.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Stephens lowered their target price on shares of Simmons First National from $29.00 to $28.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd.

Simmons First National Stock Down 1.5 %

SFNC stock opened at $20.47 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.92 and a beta of 0.84. Simmons First National Co. has a 12 month low of $16.03 and a 12 month high of $25.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Simmons First National (NASDAQ:SFNC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $208.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $208.67 million. Simmons First National had a return on equity of 5.10% and a net margin of 10.46%. Simmons First National’s quarterly revenue was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Simmons First National Co. will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Simmons First National Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.2125 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Simmons First National’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.85 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.15%. Simmons First National’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 70.25%.

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.