Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Has $184.49 Million Stake in First Financial Bancorp. $FFBC

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) by 6.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,617,522 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 374,373 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.06% of First Financial Bancorp. worth $184,493,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of First Financial Bancorp. by 137.6% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 991 shares of the bank’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 574 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Corp lifted its holdings in First Financial Bancorp. by 56.0% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 1,526 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 548 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in First Financial Bancorp. by 38.7% during the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,743 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 486 shares during the last quarter. Smithfield Trust Co bought a new position in First Financial Bancorp. during the fourth quarter worth $50,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in First Financial Bancorp. by 21.7% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,036 shares of the bank’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares during the period. 77.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at First Financial Bancorp.

In other First Financial Bancorp. news, CFO James M. Anderson sold 4,263 shares of First Financial Bancorp. stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.00, for a total value of $127,890.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 118,537 shares in the company, valued at $3,556,110. The trade was a 3.47% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Archie M. Brown sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $309,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 243,758 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,539,434.94. This represents a 3.94% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 41,126 shares of company stock worth $1,255,501. Corporate insiders own 1.08% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on FFBC. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of First Financial Bancorp. in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of First Financial Bancorp. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial increased their price target on shares of First Financial Bancorp. from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. 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 currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.67.

First Financial Bancorp. Stock Performance

FFBC opened at $33.87 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.92. The company has a market capitalization of $3.55 billion, a PE ratio of 11.97 and a beta of 0.92. First Financial Bancorp. has a 1 year low of $23.06 and a 1 year high of $36.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

First Financial Bancorp. (NASDAQ:FFBC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The bank reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $264.17 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $270.29 million. First Financial Bancorp. had a return on equity of 11.13% and a net margin of 20.77%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. Research analysts expect that First Financial Bancorp. will post 3.3 EPS for the current year.

First Financial Bancorp. Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. This is a boost from First Financial Bancorp.’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. First Financial Bancorp.’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.34%.

First Financial Bancorp. Company Profile

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.