First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) Downgraded to “Sell” at StockNews.com

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

First Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ FBNC opened at $31.52 on Thursday. First Bancorp has a 52 week low of $26.00 and a 52 week high of $38.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.38 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $34.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.39.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $97.03 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.63 million. First Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.73% and a net margin of 20.58%. Equities research analysts anticipate that First Bancorp will post 2.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of First Bancorp by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,789,188 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $103,228,000 after acquiring an additional 52,812 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of First Bancorp by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,848,591 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $68,418,000 after acquiring an additional 112,422 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in First Bancorp by 91.7% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,245,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,078,000 after purchasing an additional 595,695 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in First Bancorp by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 585,926 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,685,000 after purchasing an additional 73,508 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in First Bancorp by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 556,187 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,584,000 after purchasing an additional 14,710 shares during the period. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.