BancFirst price target raised to $95 from $84.50 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler analyst Nathan Race raised the firm’s price target on BancFirst to $95 from $84.50 and keeps an Underweight rating on the shares. The firm notes BancFirst continued to generate top tier profitability in Q2 and posted 5% PPNR upside driven by net interest margin expansion with very strong loan growth. Both the higher net interest margin and loan growth starting points coming out of Q2 push up Piper’s 2024/2025 EPS estimates to $6.10/$5.90 from $5.70/$5.45. The firm continues to believe BancFirst is one of the highest quality SMID cap banks. However, it anticipates limited additional price to earnings expansion further above peers, and absent greater visibility on deployment of excess capital via M&A.