First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Acquires 257 Shares of First Bancorp $FBNC

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in First Bancorp were worth $368,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS raised its stake in First Bancorp by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 9,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $403,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in First Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $236,000. Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in First Bancorp by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 16,603 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $732,000 after acquiring an additional 2,322 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in First Bancorp by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 24,642 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,085,000 after acquiring an additional 1,732 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in First Bancorp by 33.5% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,895 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

First Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of First Bancorp stock opened at $49.06 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $52.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.74. The company has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of 20.61 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. First Bancorp has a 52 week low of $34.50 and a 52 week high of $56.45.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.08. First Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.61% and a net margin of 17.50%.The business had revenue of $89.61 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.47 million. As a group, analysts expect that First Bancorp will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

First Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This is a positive change from First Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. First Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Stephens lifted their price objective on First Bancorp from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on First Bancorp from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Zacks Research downgraded First Bancorp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on First Bancorp from $53.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of First Bancorp in a research report on Saturday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.67.

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.