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First Bancorp (FBP) Stock Moves -1.56%: What You Should Know

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First Bancorp (FBP - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $14.52, moving -1.56% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 2.8% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 2.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.1%.

Coming into today, shares of the holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico had gained 2.72% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector lost 4.31%, while the S&P 500 lost 4.08%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from First Bancorp as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 25, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.40, up 8.11% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $231.97 million, up 8.05% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.61 per share and revenue of $913.22 million, which would represent changes of +15% and +7.3%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for First Bancorp. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.63% higher. First Bancorp is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that First Bancorp has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.19 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.84.

Investors should also note that FBP has a PEG ratio of 0.92 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Banks - Southeast stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.92 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Banks - Southeast industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 24, putting it in the top 10% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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