First Bancorp (FBP) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know
First Bancorp (FBP) closed the most recent trading day at $14.43, moving +0.07% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.72%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.45%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.27%.
Coming into today, shares of the holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico had lost 10.1% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector lost 7.06%, while the S&P 500 lost 9.06%.
Investors will be hoping for strength from First Bancorp as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, First Bancorp is projected to report earnings of $0.39 per share, which would represent 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.
FBP's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.60 per share and revenue of $907.91 million. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +14.29% and +6.68%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for First Bancorp should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. First Bancorp is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
In terms of valuation, First Bancorp is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.04. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.41, which means First Bancorp is trading at a discount to the group.
Meanwhile, FBP's PEG ratio is currently 0.9. 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. The Banks - Southeast was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.9 at yesterday's closing price.
The Banks - Southeast industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 36, which puts it in the top 15% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
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