Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Lowers Stock Position in First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its position in First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) by 13.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,087 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,853 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in First Bancorp were worth $485,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in FBNC. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of First Bancorp by 372.1% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 742,637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,654,000 after purchasing an additional 585,338 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in First Bancorp by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,293,843 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $100,862,000 after buying an additional 77,074 shares during the last quarter. Old North State Trust LLC bought a new stake in First Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $3,206,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in First Bancorp by 4,012.5% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 56,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,288,000 after acquiring an additional 55,613 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of First Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,434,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FBNC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of First Bancorp from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of First Bancorp from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of First Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Stephens increased their target price on shares of First Bancorp from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.67.

First Bancorp Stock Up 0.1%

FBNC opened at $52.85 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $46.22 and a 200 day moving average of $42.70. The company has a market cap of $2.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.59 and a beta of 0.96. First Bancorp has a 12 month low of $34.50 and a 12 month high of $52.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $111.02 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $109.22 million. First Bancorp had a net margin of 17.65% and a return on equity of 8.96%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that First Bancorp will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

First Bancorp Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 28th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. First Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.32%.

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.