First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The bank reported $0.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. First Financial Bancorp. had a return on equity of 10.69% and a net margin of 19.67%. The business had revenue of $302.82 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $214.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.67 EPS.

First Financial Bancorp. Stock Performance

First Financial Bancorp. stock traded down $1.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $24.38. The stock had a trading volume of 715,460 shares, compared to its average volume of 369,221. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $25.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.84. First Financial Bancorp. has a 1 year low of $17.34 and a 1 year high of $28.25. The stock has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.84 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59.

First Financial Bancorp. Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.94%. First Financial Bancorp.’s payout ratio is currently 38.71%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FFBC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on First Financial Bancorp. from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Financial Bancorp. news, insider Claude E. Davis sold 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total transaction of $771,400.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 53,576 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,425,121.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 2.04% of the company’s stock.

About First Financial Bancorp.

First Financial Bancorp. operates as the bank holding company for First Financial Bank that provides commercial banking and related services to individuals and businesses in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. The company offers checking, savings, and money-market accounts; and accepts various deposit products, such as interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing accounts, time deposits, and cash management services for commercial customers.