First Commonwealth Financial Co. (NYSE:FCF) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of First Commonwealth Financial Co. (NYSE:FCF) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the five research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $17.50.

FCF has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on First Commonwealth Financial from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of First Commonwealth Financial from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Janney Montgomery Scott cut shares of First Commonwealth Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $16.00 to $19.00 in a report on Monday, July 29th. StockNews.com raised shares of First Commonwealth Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of First Commonwealth Financial from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th.

First Commonwealth Financial Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE FCF opened at $16.94 on Tuesday. First Commonwealth Financial has a 52-week low of $11.16 and a 52-week high of $19.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.52 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $16.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.53.

First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE:FCF) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.01. First Commonwealth Financial had a return on equity of 12.14% and a net margin of 23.39%. The business had revenue of $120.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $118.34 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. First Commonwealth Financial’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that First Commonwealth Financial will post 1.44 EPS for the current year.

First Commonwealth Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 2nd were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 2nd. First Commonwealth Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.30%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On First Commonwealth Financial

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 1.0% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 89,097 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,240,000 after purchasing an additional 887 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its position in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 1.8% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 51,300 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $708,000 after buying an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 25,775 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $359,000 after acquiring an additional 995 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its position in First Commonwealth Financial by 6.3% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 20,434 shares of the bank’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in First Commonwealth Financial by 451.1% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,995 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 1,633 shares in the last quarter. 72.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About First Commonwealth Financial

First Commonwealth Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides various consumer and commercial banking services in the United States. Its consumer services include personal checking accounts, interest-earning checking accounts, savings and health savings accounts, insured money market accounts, debit cards, investment certificates, fixed and variable rate certificates of deposit, mortgage loans, secured and unsecured installment loans, construction and real estate loans, safe deposit facilities, credit cards, credit lines with overdraft checking protection, IRA accounts, and automated teller machine (atm) services, as well as internet, mobile, and telephone banking services.