First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE:FCF) Downgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE:FCF) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report released on Thursday.

FCF has been the subject of several other reports. Stephens reduced their price objective on First Commonwealth Financial from $16.50 to $15.50 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $17.00 price target on shares of First Commonwealth Financial in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th.

First Commonwealth Financial Stock Performance

FCF stock opened at $13.55 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.38 billion, a PE ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.62. First Commonwealth Financial has a 12-month low of $11.16 and a 12-month high of $15.90.

First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE:FCF) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $116.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.80 million. First Commonwealth Financial had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 12.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that First Commonwealth Financial will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Commonwealth Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd. This is a positive change from First Commonwealth Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. First Commonwealth Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.06%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. EMC Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 12,300 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $150,000 after purchasing an additional 807 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 226,200 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,762,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 50.5% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,666 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $103,000 after acquiring an additional 2,236 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 59,086 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $912,000 after acquiring an additional 2,721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in shares of First Commonwealth Financial by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 35,469 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 2,878 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.58% of the company’s stock.

First Commonwealth Financial Company Profile

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.