First Community (NASDAQ:FCCO) Upgraded to “Buy” at Janney Montgomery Scott

Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded shares of First Community (NASDAQ:FCCO) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $30.00 target price on the bank’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on FCCO. Raymond James raised shares of First Community from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $27.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of First Community from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd.

First Community Stock Up 3.9 %

Shares of First Community stock opened at $26.40 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $24.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. First Community has a twelve month low of $15.40 and a twelve month high of $27.28. The stock has a market cap of $201.70 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.59 and a beta of 0.42.

First Community (NASDAQ:FCCO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The bank reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.06. First Community had a net margin of 13.49% and a return on equity of 10.14%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.43 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that First Community will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Community Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 4th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 4th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. First Community’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.15%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On First Community

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FCCO. Fourthstone LLC raised its stake in shares of First Community by 28.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fourthstone LLC now owns 400,225 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,581,000 after purchasing an additional 89,652 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in shares of First Community in the 2nd quarter valued at about $261,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of First Community in the 3rd quarter valued at about $289,000. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of First Community by 48.1% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 39,985 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $857,000 after purchasing an additional 12,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake in First Community by 214.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 10,046 shares of the bank’s stock worth $215,000 after acquiring an additional 6,847 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.25% of the company’s stock.

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.