First Commonwealth Financial Co. (NYSE:FCF) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.13 Per Share

First Commonwealth Financial Co. (NYSE:FCF) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 23rd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.13 per share by the bank on Friday, May 17th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 2nd. This is a boost from First Commonwealth Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13.

First Commonwealth Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 7 consecutive years. First Commonwealth Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 34.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect First Commonwealth Financial to earn $1.46 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.2%.

First Commonwealth Financial Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE FCF traded down $0.11 on Wednesday, reaching $13.47. 40,589 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 510,651. First Commonwealth Financial has a 12 month low of $11.16 and a 12 month high of $15.90. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $13.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.60. The company has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.73 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92.

First Commonwealth Financial (NYSE:FCF) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.01. First Commonwealth Financial had a return on equity of 13.78% and a net margin of 25.07%. The company had revenue of $116.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that First Commonwealth Financial will post 1.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on FCF. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of First Commonwealth Financial in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Stephens cut their price objective on First Commonwealth Financial from $16.50 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded First Commonwealth Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th.

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.