Short Interest in First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) Increases By 9.3%

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) saw a significant growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,650,000 shares, a growth of 9.3% from the October 31st total of 1,510,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 419,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days. Approximately 1.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other First Financial Bancorp. news, insider Scott T. Crawley sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.31, for a total value of $87,930.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 19,279 shares in the company, valued at $565,067.49. The trade was a 13.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Richard S. Dennen sold 4,068 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total value of $122,080.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 70,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,120,266.52. The trade was a 5.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,700 shares of company stock worth $335,429 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.04% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Financial Bancorp.

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFBC. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in First Financial Bancorp. by 0.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,732,162 shares of the bank’s stock worth $149,587,000 after purchasing an additional 60,612 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in First Financial Bancorp. by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,643,440 shares of the bank’s stock worth $117,154,000 after acquiring an additional 39,655 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in First Financial Bancorp. by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,271,990 shares of the bank’s stock worth $57,333,000 after acquiring an additional 34,977 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in First Financial Bancorp. by 1.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,282,349 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,354,000 after acquiring an additional 23,472 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Financial Bank Trust Division boosted its stake in First Financial Bancorp. by 4.2% in the third quarter. First Financial Bank Trust Division now owns 901,908 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $22,755,000 after acquiring an additional 36,679 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.23% of the company’s stock.

First Financial Bancorp. Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FFBC opened at $28.84 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $26.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $2.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.43 and a beta of 1.01. First Financial Bancorp. has a 1-year low of $20.59 and a 1-year high of $31.18.

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.01. First Financial Bancorp. had a net margin of 18.55% and a return on equity of 10.32%. The firm had revenue of $302.82 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $214.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that First Financial Bancorp. will post 2.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Financial Bancorp. Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. First Financial Bancorp.’s payout ratio is currently 41.38%.

About First Financial Bancorp.

First Financial Bancorp. operates as the bank holding company for First Financial Bank that provides commercial banking and related services to individuals and businesses in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois. The company offers checking, savings, and money-market accounts; and accepts various deposit products, such as interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing accounts, time deposits, and cash management services for commercial customers.