First Community (NASDAQ:FCCO) Issues Earnings Results

First Community (NASDAQ:FCCO) posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The bank reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.06, Zacks reports. First Community had a return on equity of 9.57% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS.

First Community Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of FCCO stock opened at $24.57 on Thursday. First Community has a fifty-two week low of $15.40 and a fifty-two week high of $26.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $187.71 million, a P/E ratio of 14.54 and a beta of 0.42. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $24.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

First Community Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 4th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. First Community’s payout ratio is 35.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on FCCO. Raymond James raised First Community from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Thursday. Hovde Group lifted their target price on shares of First Community from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday.

About First Community

First Community Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Community Bank that provides various commercial and retail banking products and services to small-to-medium sized businesses, professionals, and individuals. The company operates through Commercial and Retail Banking, Mortgage Banking, and Investment Advisory and Non-Deposit segments.