First Financial Bancorp (FFBC) Given News Impact Rating of 0.23

Press coverage about First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ:FFBC) has been trending somewhat positive on Saturday, according to Accern. The research group scores the sentiment of media coverage by reviewing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. First Financial Bancorp earned a news impact score of 0.23 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news headlines about the bank an impact score of 45.5407494849709 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next few days.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. BidaskClub cut First Financial Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 30th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded First Financial Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. DA Davidson cut First Financial Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, May 18th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. ValuEngine cut First Financial Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 2nd. Finally, Piper Jaffray Companies reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of First Financial Bancorp in a report on Monday, April 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.33.

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NASDAQ:FFBC traded up $0.35 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $31.75. 218,307 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 375,094. The stock has a market cap of $3.07 billion, a PE ratio of 19.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. First Financial Bancorp has a 1-year low of $22.80 and a 1-year high of $33.70.

First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ:FFBC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 19th. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.05. First Financial Bancorp had a return on equity of 12.18% and a net margin of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $92.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.03 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.17) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. equities research analysts predict that First Financial Bancorp will post 2.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 31st. First Financial Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.20%.

In other news, insider Bradley J. Ringwald sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.11, for a total transaction of $62,220.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Claude E. Davis sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.23, for a total value of $1,128,050.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,229 shares of company stock worth $1,841,705 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 3.36% of the company’s stock.

First Financial Bancorp Company Profile

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