First BanCorp. [FBP] Stock trading around $11.99 per share: What’s Next?

First BanCorp. [NYSE: FBP] closed the trading session at $11.99 on 03/16/23. The day’s price range saw the stock hit a low of $11.19, while the highest price level was $12.215. The company report on February 9, 2023 that First BanCorp Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend on Common Stock and Increases Regular Quarterly Cash Dividend by 17% to $0.14 Per Share.

First BanCorp. (the “Corporation”) (NYSE: FBP), the bank holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico, announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.14 per share, which represents an increase of 17% or $0.02 per common share compared to its most recent dividend paid in December 2022. The dividend is payable on March 10, 2023 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 24, 2023.

“We continue to execute on our capital allocation strategy by investing in our core franchise, our people and our communities, while continuing to return capital to our shareholders” said Aurelio Alemán, President and Chief Executive Officer. “It is our priority to deliver long-term value to our shareholders.”.

The stocks have a year to date performance of -5.74 percent and weekly performance of -6.69 percent. The stock has been moved at -15.50 percent over the last six months. The stock has performed -15.38 percent around the most recent 30 days and changed -13.80 percent over the most recent 3-months.

If compared to the average trading volume of 1.43M shares, FBP reached to a volume of 3369599 in the most recent trading day, which is why market watchdogs consider the stock to be active.

Here’s what leading stock market gurus have to say about First BanCorp. [FBP]:

Based on careful and fact-backed analyses by Wall Street experts, the current consensus on the target price for FBP shares is $15.80 per share. Analysis on target price and performance of stocks is usually carefully studied by market experts, and the current Wall Street consensus on FBP stock is a recommendation set at 2.00. This rating represents a strong Buy recommendation, on the scale from 1 to 5, where 5 would mean strong sell, 4 represents Sell, 3 is Hold, and 2 indicates Buy.

Wells Fargo have made an estimate for First BanCorp. shares, keeping their opinion on the stock as Equal Weight, with their previous recommendation back on December 15, 2022. While these analysts kept the previous recommendation, Keefe Bruyette raised their target price to Outperform. The new note on the price target was released on April 12, 2022, representing the official price target for First BanCorp. stock. Previously, the target price had yet another raise to $17, while Hovde Group analysts kept a Outperform rating on FBP stock.

The Average True Range (ATR) for First BanCorp. is set at 0.55, with the Price to Sales ratio for FBP stock in the period of the last 12 months amounting to 2.51. The Price to Book ratio for the last quarter was 1.66, with the Price to Cash per share for the same quarter was set at 2.96. Price to Free Cash Flow for FBP in the course of the last twelve months was 6.52.

FBP stock trade performance evaluation

First BanCorp. [FBP] fell into the red zone at the end of the last week, falling into a negative trend and dropping by -6.69. With this latest performance, FBP shares dropped by -15.38% in over the last four-week period, additionally sinking by -15.50% over the last 6 months – not to mention a drop of -6.98% in the past year of trading.

Overbought and oversold stocks can be easily traced with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), where an RSI result of over 70 would be overbought, and any rate below 30 would indicate oversold conditions. An RSI rate of 50 would represent a neutral market momentum. The current RSI for FBP stock in for the last two-week period is set at 28.93, with the RSI for the last a single of trading hit 24.91, and the three-weeks RSI is set at 33.19 for First BanCorp. [FBP]. The present Moving Average for the last 50 days of trading for this stock 13.57, while it was recorded at 12.10 for the last single week of trading, and 14.22 for the last 200 days.

Earnings per share (EPS) analysis for First BanCorp. [FBP] stock

The progress of the company may be observed through the prism of EPS growth rate, while Wall Street analysts are focusing on predicting the 5-year EPS growth rate for FBP. When it comes to the mentioned value, analysts are expecting to see the 5-year EPS growth rate for First BanCorp. go to 14.40%.

First BanCorp. [FBP]: Insider Ownership positions

There are presently around $2,085 million, or 98.00% of FBP stock, in the hands of institutional investors. The top three institutional holders of FBP stocks are: BLACKROCK INC. with ownership of 27,437,911, which is approximately -0.956% of the company’s market cap and around 1.40% of the total institutional ownership; VANGUARD GROUP INC, holding 23,824,328 shares of the stock with an approximate value of $285.65 million in FBP stocks shares; and DIMENSIONAL FUND ADVISORS LP, currently with $164.44 million in FBP stock with ownership of nearly -3.605% of the company’s market capitalization.

Positions in First BanCorp. stocks held by institutional investors increased at the end of Friday and at the time of the Friday reporting period, where 99 institutional holders increased their position in First BanCorp. [NYSE:FBP] by around 6,579,408 shares. Additionally, 141 investors decreased positions by around 10,626,408 shares, while 43 investors held positions by with 156,669,631 shares. The mentioned changes placed institutional holdings at 173,875,447 shares, according to the latest SEC report filing. FBP stock had 36 new institutional investments in for a total of 1,113,898 shares, while 18 institutional investors sold positions of 1,397,605 shares during the same period.