Stephens Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for First American Financial (NYSE:FAF)

Stephens reissued their overweight rating on shares of First American Financial (NYSE:FAF) in a research note published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $72.00 price objective on the insurance provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on FAF. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of First American Financial from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and increased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of First American Financial in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. They set a buy rating for the company. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of First American Financial from a b- rating to a c+ rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $67.75.

First American Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE FAF opened at $54.22 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.30. The firm has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a PE ratio of 25.94 and a beta of 1.28. First American Financial has a 1 year low of $49.55 and a 1 year high of $65.54.

First American Financial (NYSE:FAF) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The insurance provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.22). The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. First American Financial had a net margin of 3.64% and a return on equity of 8.18%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.49 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that First American Financial will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First American Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $0.53 dividend. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. First American Financial’s payout ratio is currently 101.44%.

Institutional Trading of First American Financial

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in First American Financial by 121.0% during the 1st quarter. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 2,075 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $127,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136 shares in the last quarter. Bar Harbor Wealth Management lifted its stake in First American Financial by 215.7% during the 1st quarter. Bar Harbor Wealth Management now owns 130,967 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $7,996,000 after acquiring an additional 89,483 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its stake in First American Financial by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 29,700 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,813,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of First American Financial by 82.3% during the 1st quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 505 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of First American Financial by 15.9% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 139,377 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $8,509,000 after purchasing an additional 19,099 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.05% of the company’s stock.

First American Financial Company Profile

First American Financial Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides financial services. It operates through Title Insurance and Services, and Home Warranty segments. The Title Insurance and Services segment issues title insurance policies on residential and commercial property, as well as offers related products and services internationally.