First Bancorp (FBNC) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 31st

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.22 per share by the financial services provider on Saturday, January 25th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st.

First Bancorp has raised its dividend by an average of 6.9% annually over the last three years. First Bancorp has a payout ratio of 28.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect First Bancorp to earn $3.08 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 28.6%.

First Bancorp Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ FBNC opened at $44.40 on Friday. First Bancorp has a 12-month low of $29.53 and a 12-month high of $50.34. The stock has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.90 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.14.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70. First Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.00% and a net margin of 17.98%. The company had revenue of $144.99 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.00 million. As a group, equities analysts predict that First Bancorp will post 2.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FBNC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of First Bancorp from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com lowered First Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th.

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.