First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eight analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $30.50.

FFBC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Hovde Group lifted their price target on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on First Financial Bancorp. from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price (down from $30.00) on shares of First Financial Bancorp. in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised First Financial Bancorp. from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th.

First Financial Bancorp. Price Performance

FFBC stock opened at $30.31 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. First Financial Bancorp. has a 52-week low of $21.10 and a 52-week high of $31.38. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.79.

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. First Financial Bancorp. had a return on equity of 10.77% and a net margin of 20.30%.The firm had revenue of $251.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $249.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that First Financial Bancorp. will post 2.64 EPS for the current year.

First Financial Bancorp. Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 2nd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. First Financial Bancorp.’s payout ratio is presently 37.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other First Financial Bancorp. news, CEO Archie M. Brown sold 11,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.80, for a total transaction of $308,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 229,391 shares in the company, valued at $6,147,678.80. The trade was a 4.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Richard S. Dennen sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.20, for a total transaction of $604,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 61,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,868,051.20. The trade was a 24.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders sold 44,821 shares of company stock valued at $1,273,992. 1.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FFBC. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 55.0% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 97,727 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,441,000 after buying an additional 34,676 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its position in First Financial Bancorp. by 4.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 56,205 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,404,000 after acquiring an additional 2,458 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 3.9% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 589,799 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,733,000 after purchasing an additional 22,227 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 571.4% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 7,412 shares of the bank’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 6,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 6.0% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 318,298 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,951,000 after purchasing an additional 17,911 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.23% of the company’s stock.

About First Financial Bancorp.

First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ: FFBC) is a bank holding company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the parent of First Financial Bank. The company provides a comprehensive suite of commercial and consumer banking services through a network of more than 100 full-service banking centers and mortgage offices across Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Its core mission centers on delivering personalized relationship banking to businesses, individuals and public sector clients.

First Financial Bank’s product portfolio includes deposit solutions such as checking, savings and money market accounts, alongside a range of lending offerings that cover commercial and industrial loans, real estate and construction financing, home mortgages and home equity lines of credit.