Wedbush Comments on First Citizens BancShares, Inc.’s Q3 2024 Earnings (NASDAQ:FCNCA)

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) – Stock analysts at Wedbush lowered their Q3 2024 EPS estimates for shares of First Citizens BancShares in a report issued on Tuesday, September 24th. Wedbush analyst D. Chiaverini now forecasts that the bank will earn $48.03 per share for the quarter, down from their previous estimate of $48.24. Wedbush currently has a “Neutral” rating and a $2,150.00 price target on the stock. The consensus estimate for First Citizens BancShares’ current full-year earnings is $200.92 per share. Wedbush also issued estimates for First Citizens BancShares’ FY2024 earnings at $199.68 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $50.40 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $50.90 EPS and Q2 2026 earnings at $53.75 EPS.

First Citizens BancShares (NASDAQ:FCNCA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The bank reported $50.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $44.91 by $5.96. The company had revenue of $3.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. First Citizens BancShares had a return on equity of 14.84% and a net margin of 18.19%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $52.60 earnings per share.

FCNCA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Piper Sandler upped their target price on First Citizens BancShares from $1,950.00 to $2,150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of First Citizens BancShares from $1,950.00 to $2,250.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of First Citizens BancShares in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $2,005.00 target price for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of First Citizens BancShares from $2,100.00 to $2,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Raymond James raised shares of First Citizens BancShares from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $1,900.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, First Citizens BancShares has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $1,962.90.

First Citizens BancShares Stock Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ:FCNCA opened at $1,845.53 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $1,954.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $1,770.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.25 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. First Citizens BancShares has a 1-year low of $1,274.91 and a 1-year high of $2,174.80.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in First Citizens BancShares by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,064,822 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,740,984,000 after buying an additional 47,167 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of First Citizens BancShares by 21.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 239,563 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $339,933,000 after purchasing an additional 41,793 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors bought a new position in shares of First Citizens BancShares in the first quarter worth about $298,180,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its position in shares of First Citizens BancShares by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 58,583 shares of the bank’s stock worth $95,783,000 after purchasing an additional 1,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in First Citizens BancShares by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 46,626 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $66,161,000 after purchasing an additional 4,298 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.18% of the company’s stock.

First Citizens BancShares declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, July 25th that allows the company to repurchase $3.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the bank to repurchase up to 12.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

First Citizens BancShares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were given a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 30th. First Citizens BancShares’s payout ratio is 3.64%.

About First Citizens BancShares

First Citizens BancShares, Inc operates as the holding company for First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company that provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses, and professionals. The company's deposit products include checking, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts.