First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

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

First Financial Bancorp. Price Performance

First Financial Bancorp. stock opened at $24.38 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.87. First Financial Bancorp. has a 52 week low of $17.34 and a 52 week high of $28.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.33 billion, a PE ratio of 10.03 and a beta of 0.99.

First Financial Bancorp. Announces Dividend

The company 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%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. First Financial Bancorp.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.51%.

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 value of $771,400.00. Following the sale, the insider now 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.04% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th.

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.