First Bancorp to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.22 (NASDAQ:FBNC)

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.22 per share by the financial services provider on Saturday, January 25th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st.

First Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 6.9% per year over the last three years. First Bancorp has a payout ratio of 28.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect First Bancorp to earn $3.08 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.6%.

First Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of FBNC stock traded down $0.59 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $47.35. The stock had a trading volume of 228,092 shares, compared to its average volume of 166,818. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $45.11 and its 200 day moving average is $40.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a PE ratio of 19.09 and a beta of 1.04. First Bancorp has a twelve month low of $29.53 and a twelve month high of $50.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.70. First Bancorp had a net margin of 17.98% and a return on equity of 8.00%. The company had revenue of $144.99 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $97.00 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that First Bancorp will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of First Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on First Bancorp from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Transactions at First Bancorp

In other news, Director Suzanne S. Deferie sold 17,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.96, for a total value of $780,290.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 67,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,974,069.84. This represents a 20.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.65% of the company’s stock.

About First Bancorp

First Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for First Bank that provides banking products and services for individuals and small to medium-sized businesses. The company accepts deposit products, such as checking, savings, and money market accounts, as well as time deposits, including certificate of deposits and individual retirement accounts.