Simmons First restarts stock repurchase program

Pine Bluff, Ark.-based Simmons First National Corp. (Nasdaq: SFNC), which in May 2010 acquired Springfield-based Southwest Community Bank, has reinstated a stock repurchase program it temporarily suspended in 2008.

The plan authorizes the company to repurchase up to 700,000 of its Class A common stock at prevailing market prices. Prior to the suspension of the program, the company had repurchased 54,328 shares, according to a news release.

As of 9:30 a.m., Simmons First National Corp. shares were trading at $21.54, compared to a 52-week range of $18.71 to $30.16.

Simmons First National Corp., holding company for Simmons First National Bank, operates its sole Missouri branch in Springfield at 3333 E. Battlefield Road.

It entered the market by purchasing 14-year-old Southwest Community Bank's $96.6 million in assets a day after the Missouri Division of Finance closed the Springfield bank, which had a significant troubled asset ratio - a stress indicator developed by Banktracker.com that compares a bank’s troubled assets to its capital and loan loss reserves. Simmons also agreed to pay the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. a 0.5 percent premium to take control of $102.5 million in total deposits, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

Simmons First National has assets of roughly $3.3 billion. As of June 30, the company had a stockholders' equity of $404 million.

"A portion of this capital has been allocated for our acquisition program, and we plan to leave this portion of our capital available for this purpose," Simmons Chairman and CEO J. Thomas May said in the release. "We plan to utilize a portion of our annual earnings to repurchase shares.

"The repurchase program will allow us to acquire shares needed for corporate purposes as well as make an investment in our company."[[In-content Ad]]