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

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 23rd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, October 25th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 30th.

First Bancorp has increased its dividend by an average of 6.9% annually over the last three years. First Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 30.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect First Bancorp to earn $2.84 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 31.0%.

First Bancorp Stock Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ FBNC opened at $41.30 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.91 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a 50 day moving average of $41.26 and a 200-day moving average of $35.63. First Bancorp has a 1-year low of $26.00 and a 1-year high of $45.41.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $143.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $94.00 million. First Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.39% and a net margin of 20.17%. On average, equities research analysts expect that First Bancorp will post 2.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at First Bancorp

In related news, Director Suzanne S. Deferie sold 17,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.96, for a total transaction of $780,290.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 67,654 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,974,069.84. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Suzanne S. Deferie sold 17,750 shares of First Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.96, for a total transaction of $780,290.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 67,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,974,069.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Mason Y. Garrett sold 22,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.41, for a total transaction of $989,748.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 196,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,526,418.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 42,586 shares of company stock worth $1,859,154 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FBNC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded First Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of First Bancorp from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th.

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.