First Community Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCBC) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

First Community Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCBC) saw a large increase in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 145,600 shares, an increase of 5.3% from the May 31st total of 138,300 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 27,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.4 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in First Community Bankshares by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 12,781 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $443,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in First Community Bankshares by 12.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 916,310 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $31,732,000 after purchasing an additional 102,183 shares during the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System bought a new stake in First Community Bankshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $772,000. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in First Community Bankshares by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 26,012 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,925 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in First Community Bankshares by 47.8% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 18,114 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $627,000 after purchasing an additional 5,862 shares during the last quarter. 34.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on FCBC. StockNews.com raised shares of First Community Bankshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 27th. Hovde Group began coverage on shares of First Community Bankshares in a report on Friday, June 28th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $38.00 price objective for the company.

First Community Bankshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ FCBC opened at $36.10 on Thursday. First Community Bankshares has a one year low of $28.13 and a one year high of $39.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $662.44 million, a PE ratio of 13.32 and a beta of 0.53.

First Community Bankshares (NASDAQ:FCBC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. First Community Bankshares had a net margin of 27.10% and a return on equity of 11.04%. The business had revenue of $40.89 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $39.72 million. Equities analysts forecast that First Community Bankshares will post 2.59 earnings per share for the current year.

First Community Bankshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th were issued a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 9th. First Community Bankshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.80%.

About First Community Bankshares

First Community Bankshares, Inc operates as the financial holding company for First Community Bank that provides various banking products and services. It offers demand deposit accounts, savings and money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement plans; and commercial, consumer real estate, and consumer and other loans.