First Bancorp (FBP) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know
First Bancorp (FBP) closed the most recent trading day at $13.67, moving -1.44% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.03%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.11%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.06%.
Coming into today, shares of the holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico had lost 6.54% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector lost 8.75%, while the S&P 500 lost 10.4%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from First Bancorp as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect First Bancorp to post earnings of $0.39 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 5.41%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $228.69 million, up 6.52% from the prior-year quarter.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.60 per share and revenue of $907.91 million. These totals would mark changes of +14.29% and +6.68%, respectively, from last year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for First Bancorp. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. First Bancorp is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, First Bancorp is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 8.7. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.21.
Also, we should mention that FBP has a PEG ratio of 0.87. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. FBP's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.87 as of yesterday's close.
The Banks - Southeast industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 47, which puts it in the top 19% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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