First BanCorp. (NYSE:FBP) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.06 EPS

First BanCorp. (NYSE:FBP) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The bank reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.06, Briefing.com reports. First BanCorp. had a return on equity of 21.58% and a net margin of 25.82%. The firm had revenue of $302.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $229.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.39 EPS.

First BanCorp. Price Performance

Shares of FBP stock opened at $17.71 on Thursday. First BanCorp. has a twelve month low of $10.18 and a twelve month high of $17.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

First BanCorp. Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.61%. This is a boost from First BanCorp.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. First BanCorp.’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FBP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on First BanCorp. from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on First BanCorp. from $18.50 to $19.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Michael Mcdonald sold 57,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.34, for a total transaction of $998,784.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,708,007.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Michael Mcdonald sold 57,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.34, for a total transaction of $998,784.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 98,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,708,007.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Crespo Luz sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.47, for a total value of $164,700.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 50,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $824,405.85. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 132,600 shares of company stock worth $2,278,784. 2.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About First BanCorp.

First BanCorp. operates as a bank holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico that provides a range of financial products and services to consumers and commercial customers. The company operates through six segments: Commercial and Corporate Banking, Mortgage Banking, Consumer (Retail) Banking, Treasury and Investments, United States Operations, and Virgin Islands Operations.