First National Co. (NASDAQ:FXNC) Short Interest Update

First National Co. (NASDAQ:FXNC) saw a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 58,400 shares, a growth of 32.7% from the March 15th total of 44,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 25,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days. Approximately 0.8% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FXNC. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in First National by 8.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 50,401 shares of the company’s stock worth $882,000 after buying an additional 3,789 shares in the last quarter. Founders Grove Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in First National during the 4th quarter worth approximately $252,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First National in the fourth quarter valued at $678,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in First National by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 14,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Salzhauer Michael acquired a new stake in shares of First National in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $202,000. 33.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Hovde Group downgraded First National from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $28.50 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th.

First National Price Performance

Shares of First National stock opened at $18.60 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $167.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.03 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.88. First National has a 52-week low of $14.50 and a 52-week high of $26.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

First National (NASDAQ:FXNC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.19. First National had a net margin of 7.51% and a return on equity of 12.09%. On average, equities research analysts expect that First National will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First National Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.155 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.33%. First National’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.45%.

First National Company Profile

First National Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Bank that provides various commercial banking services to small and medium-sized businesses, individuals, estates, local governmental entities, and non-profit organizations in Virginia. The company's deposit products include checking, savings, money market, and individual retirement accounts, as well as certificates of deposit and treasury management solutions.