First Financial Bankshares Lowered to Underperform at Sterne Agee (FFIN)

First Financial Bankshares (NASDAQ:FFIN) was downgraded by equities researchers at Sterne Agee from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, TheFlyOnTheWall.com reports. They currently have a $55.00 price objective on the stock. Sterne Agee’s target price points to a potential downside of 12.38% from the stock’s previous close.

The analysts wrote, “We are lowering FFIN from Neutral to Underperform. Our basic call is that underperformance, at least on a relative basis, is pragmatic with the valuation fully reflecting the benefit of excess capital deployment that has yet to transpire.”

Shares of First Financial Bankshares (NASDAQ:FFIN) traded down 1.86% during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $61.76. First Financial Bankshares has a one year low of $33.71 and a one year high of $63.99. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $59.63. The company has a market cap of $1.958 billion and a P/E ratio of 26.11.

First Financial Bankshares (NASDAQ:FFIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.01. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.58 earnings per share. Analysts expect that First Financial Bankshares will post $2.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on FFIN. Analysts at SunTrust raised their price target on shares of First Financial Bankshares from $58.00 to $63.00 in a research note to investors on Tuesday, July 30th. Separately, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of First Financial Bankshares from $47.00 to $55.00 in a research note to investors on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of First Financial Bankshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note to investors on Wednesday, July 3rd. They now have a $60.60 price target on the stock.

Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. First Financial Bankshares currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.40.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 12th.

In other First Financial Bankshares news, Director Joseph E. Canon unloaded 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.54, for a total value of $312,700.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

First Financial Bankshares, Inc is a financial holding company. Through the Company’s subsidiary banks, it conducts a full-service commercial banking business.