First Community Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.14 (NASDAQ:FCCO)

First Community Co. (NASDAQ:FCCO) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.14 per share by the bank on Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 29th.

First Community has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 2 years. First Community has a dividend payout ratio of 30.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect First Community to earn $1.84 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.4%.

First Community Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ FCCO opened at $16.77 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $16.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.87. First Community has a 52-week low of $15.40 and a 52-week high of $22.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.78. The company has a market cap of $127.96 million, a PE ratio of 11.73 and a beta of 0.43.

First Community (NASDAQ:FCCO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.34. First Community had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 8.69%. The company had revenue of $24.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $14.83 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that First Community will post 1.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FCCO. StockNews.com cut shares of First Community from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Raymond James upgraded shares of First Community from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 25th.

About First Community

First Community Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Community Bank that provides various commercial and retail banking products and services to small-to-medium sized businesses, professionals, and individuals. The company operates through Commercial and Retail Banking, Mortgage Banking, and Investment Advisory and Non-Deposit segments.