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

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.22 per share by the financial services provider on Saturday, January 25th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st.

First Bancorp has increased its dividend payment 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 Price Performance

Shares of First Bancorp stock opened at $43.89 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $1.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.70 and a beta of 1.04. First Bancorp has a one year low of $29.53 and a one year high of $50.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $45.24 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.43.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $97.00 million. Equities analysts expect that First Bancorp will post 2.72 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FBNC. StockNews.com lowered shares of First Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of First Bancorp from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Suzanne S. Deferie sold 17,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.96, for a total value of $780,290.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 67,654 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,974,069.84. This trade represents a 20.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.65% of the company’s stock.

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.