First Financial Bancorp (FFBC) Stock Market Rating improved by BidaskClub

First Financial Bancorp (Nasdaq: FFBC) has been improved by BidaskClub stock research badysts from a "hold" rating of one note "buy" in a research report released to customers and investors on Wednesday, July 11.

Other equity badysts also published research reports on the action, ValuEngine raised shares of First Financial Bancorp On April 26, Piper Jaffray Companies issued a "neutral" rating On the shares of First Financial Bancorp in a report published on Monday, April 23, 2006. Zacks Investment Research has raised shares of First Financial Bancorp "Retain" the note to "buy" and set a target price of $ 35.00 for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 24, 2011. FIG Partners cut the shares of First Financial Bancorp from an outperformance rating to a reappear rating They noted that the move was an appraisal call. Finally, Barclays increased its target price on First Financial Bancorp shares from $ 30.00 to $ 32.00 and granted the company an "underweighted" rating in a research report on Monday, April 23rd. Six research badysts rated the stock with a conservation rating and four gave a buy-to-action rating. First Financial Bancorp currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $ 31.78.

FFBC traded down $ 0.50 during Wednesday trading, reaching $ 30.75. 266,900 shares were exchanged for an average volume of 469,138 shares. The company has a debt ratio of 0.79, a ratio of 0.92 and a ratio of 0.93. First Financial Bancorp has a low of fifty-two weeks of $ 22.80 and a high of fifty-two weeks of $ 33.70. The company has a market capitalization of $ 2.96 billion, a PE ratio of 19.10, a P / E / G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.10.

First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ: FFBC) released its financial results for the last time on Thursday, July 19th. The bank reported earnings per share of $ 0.57 for the quarter, exceeding badysts consensus estimates by $ 0.55 by $ 0.52. First Financial Bancorp reported a net margin of 25.41% and a return on equity of 12.17%. The company recorded a business turnover of $ 152.20 million during the quarter, compared with $ 147.77 million for badysts. In the same quarter of the previous year, the company generated earnings per share of $ 0.37. The quarterly business turnover of the company is up 77.0% over the same quarter of last year. Stock badysts expect First Financial Bancorp to post EPS of 2.22 for the current year.

In addition, President Claude E. Davis sold 19,379 shares of the company in a transaction dated Thursday, May 10. The shares were sold at an average price of $ 32.19, for a total value of $ 623,810.01. The sale has been disclosed in a legal deposit with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In addition, Bradley J. Ringwald, an insider, sold 2,000 shares of the company in a transaction dated Monday, April 30. The shares were sold at an average price of $ 31.11, for a total transaction of $ 62,220. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,229 shares valued at $ 1,841,705 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.36% of the shares of the company.

Several hedge funds have recently changed their holdings in FFBC. The California Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings of First Financial Bancorp shares by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. The California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 106,845 shares of the bank valued at $ 2,815,000 after purchasing an additional 2,401 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its holdings of First Financial Bancorp shares by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 170,762 shares of the bank valued at $ 4,499,000 after purchasing 18,891 additional shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers increased its holdings of First Financial Bancorp shares by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now holds 149,923 shares of the bank valued at $ 3,950,000 after the purchase of an additional 17,025 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings of First Financial Bancorp shares by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now holds 8,036,293 shares of the bank valued at $ 211,755,000 after purchasing 219,964 additional shares during the period. Lastly, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings of First Financial Bancorp shares by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now holds 629,569 shares of the bank valued at $ 16,588,000 after purchasing 21,124 additional shares during the period. 80.55% of the stock is currently held by institutional investors.

First Financial Bancorp Company Profile

First Financial Bancorp operates as a bank holding company for First Financial Bank which provides commercial banking and other personal and commercial banking services from Ohio. , Indiana and Kentucky. The Company accepts various deposit products, such as interest-bearing and interest-free accounts, term deposits and cash management services for commercial clients.

Further Reading: Understanding Analyst Recommendations

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