First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.06 EPS

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The bank reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.06, Zacks reports. First Financial Bancorp. had a net margin of 18.55% and a return on equity of 10.32%.

First Financial Bancorp. Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFBC opened at $27.99 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. First Financial Bancorp. has a 1 year low of $20.59 and a 1 year high of $31.18. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $28.07 and a 200-day moving average of $26.45.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on FFBC shares. Stephens upgraded First Financial Bancorp. from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on First Financial Bancorp. from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.