Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $2.80 Million Position in First Financial Bancorp. $FFBC

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its holdings in First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) by 23.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 110,813 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 33,739 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.12% of First Financial Bancorp. worth $2,798,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FFBC. CWM LLC grew its stake in First Financial Bancorp. by 21.3% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,670 shares of the bank’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in First Financial Bancorp. by 1.7% in the third quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,308 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $715,000 after buying an additional 481 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 27,784 shares of the bank’s stock worth $702,000 after buying an additional 493 shares in the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC grew its position in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 17,380 shares of the bank’s stock worth $422,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the period. Finally, Palisades Investment Partners LLC grew its position in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Palisades Investment Partners LLC now owns 149,854 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,784,000 after buying an additional 656 shares during the period. 77.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Gregory A. Harris sold 1,821 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.43, for a total value of $53,592.03. Following the transaction, the insider owned 42,431 shares in the company, valued at $1,248,744.33. The trade was a 4.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Richard S. Dennen sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.20, for a total value of $604,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 61,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,868,051.20. The trade was a 24.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 44,821 shares of company stock valued at $1,273,992. Corporate insiders own 1.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on FFBC. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of First Financial Bancorp. from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of First Financial Bancorp. from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Truist Financial raised their target price on First Financial Bancorp. from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $28.00 target price (down from $30.00) on shares of First Financial Bancorp. in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.50.

First Financial Bancorp. Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of First Financial Bancorp. stock opened at $31.16 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.59. First Financial Bancorp. has a 12-month low of $21.10 and a 12-month high of $31.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.02. First Financial Bancorp. had a return on equity of 10.77% and a net margin of 20.30%.The business had revenue of $251.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $249.00 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that First Financial Bancorp. will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Financial Bancorp. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 2nd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. First Financial Bancorp.’s payout ratio is 37.59%.

About First Financial Bancorp.

First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ: FFBC) is a bank holding company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the parent of First Financial Bank. The company provides a comprehensive suite of commercial and consumer banking services through a network of more than 100 full-service banking centers and mortgage offices across Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Its core mission centers on delivering personalized relationship banking to businesses, individuals and public sector clients.

First Financial Bank’s product portfolio includes deposit solutions such as checking, savings and money market accounts, alongside a range of lending offerings that cover commercial and industrial loans, real estate and construction financing, home mortgages and home equity lines of credit.