Regional banking company First Financial Bancorp (NASDAQ: FFBC) will be reporting earnings this Wednesday after market hours. Here’s what to look for.
First Financial Bancorp beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 2.7% last quarter, reporting revenues of $234.4 million, up 9.3% year on year. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts’ tangible book value per share estimates but a narrow beat of analysts’ EPS estimates.
Is First Financial Bancorp a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, analysts are expecting First Financial Bancorp’s revenue to grow 9.9% year on year to $246.4 million, slowing from the 11.3% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.79 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. First Financial Bancorp has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates three times over the last two years.
Looking at First Financial Bancorp’s peers in the regional banks segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. ServisFirst Bancshares delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 20.7%, beating analysts’ expectations by 5%, and Dime Community Bancshares reported revenues up 24.5%, topping estimates by 5.2%. ServisFirst Bancshares traded up 14.6% following the results while Dime Community Bancshares was also up 12.5%.
Read our full analysis of ServisFirst Bancshares’s results here and Dime Community Bancshares’s results here.
There has been positive sentiment among investors in the regional banks segment, with share prices up 3.1% on average over the last month. First Financial Bancorp is up 6.7% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $30 (compared to the current share price of $27.14).
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