Short Interest in First Community Co. (NASDAQ:FCCO) Expands By 81.1%

First Community Co. (NASDAQ:FCCO) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 30,600 shares, a growth of 81.1% from the December 31st total of 16,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 22,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.3 days. Approximately 0.4% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of First Community

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FCCO. Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in First Community during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of First Community during the 2nd quarter valued at about $58,000. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of First Community by 214.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 10,046 shares of the bank’s stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 6,847 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of First Community in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $190,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in First Community during the third quarter valued at approximately $289,000. Institutional investors own 61.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FCCO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James raised First Community from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $27.00 to $30.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Hovde Group raised their target price on First Community from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd.

First Community Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FCCO opened at $25.93 on Friday. First Community has a 12-month low of $15.40 and a 12-month high of $27.28. The company has a market cap of $198.11 million, a PE ratio of 14.33 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

First Community (NASDAQ:FCCO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The bank reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.06. First Community had a return on equity of 10.14% and a net margin of 13.49%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.43 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that First Community will post 2.15 EPS for the current year.

First Community Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 4th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. First Community’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.15%.

First Community Company Profile

First Community Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Community Bank that provides various commercial and retail banking products and services to small-to-medium sized businesses, professionals, and individuals. The company operates through Commercial and Retail Banking, Mortgage Banking, and Investment Advisory and Non-Deposit segments.