Brokerages Set First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) Target Price at $56.67

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $56.6667.

FBNC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of First Bancorp from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of First Bancorp in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research cut shares of First Bancorp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of First Bancorp from $53.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Stephens increased their target price on First Bancorp from $53.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 28th.

Institutional Trading of First Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its position in First Bancorp by 3.2% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 22,364 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $898,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares in the last quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of First Bancorp by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Peregrine Capital Management LLC now owns 144,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,809,000 after buying an additional 9,992 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its holdings in shares of First Bancorp by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 19,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $793,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of First Bancorp during the 1st quarter valued at $243,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of First Bancorp by 2.7% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 205,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,262,000 after acquiring an additional 5,409 shares during the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

First Bancorp Stock Performance

FBNC opened at $48.54 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm has a market cap of $2.01 billion, a PE ratio of 20.39 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.24. First Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $34.50 and a fifty-two week high of $56.45.

First Bancorp (NASDAQ:FBNC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $89.61 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $113.47 million. First Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.61% and a net margin of 17.50%. As a group, equities analysts predict that First Bancorp will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.