Everence Capital Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 5,760 First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC)

Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 5,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $213,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Bancorp by 15.6% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,037,808 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $214,463,000 after buying an additional 817,038 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of First Bancorp by 18.6% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,632,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $58,340,000 after buying an additional 256,264 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Bancorp by 76.9% in the 1st quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 569,614 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,233,000 after buying an additional 247,558 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Bancorp by 35.5% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 481,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,793,000 after buying an additional 126,148 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Bancorp by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,532,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $92,657,000 after buying an additional 109,703 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised First Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 1st.

First Bancorp Stock Up 3.4 %

NASDAQ FBNC opened at $32.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.33 billion, a PE ratio of 12.77 and a beta of 1.00. First Bancorp has a one year low of $26.00 and a one year high of $38.51. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $97.03 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.63 million. First Bancorp had a return on equity of 7.97% and a net margin of 19.06%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that First Bancorp will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 25th. Investors of record on Sunday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.72%. First Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.78%.

First Bancorp Company Profile

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.