Persistent Asset Partners Ltd Acquires Shares of 328 First Citizens BancShares, Inc. $FCNCA

Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 328 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $704,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FCNCA. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of First Citizens BancShares during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of First Citizens BancShares by 150.0% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 15 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 9 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of First Citizens BancShares by 40.0% in the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 21 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 6 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of First Citizens BancShares by 21.7% in the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 28 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of First Citizens BancShares by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 24 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 8 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on FCNCA shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of First Citizens BancShares from $2,375.00 to $2,300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Zacks Research raised shares of First Citizens BancShares from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of First Citizens BancShares from $2,200.00 to $2,150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of First Citizens BancShares from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $2,154.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut First Citizens BancShares from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $2,215.91.

First Citizens BancShares Price Performance

Shares of FCNCA stock opened at $2,094.87 on Wednesday. First Citizens BancShares, Inc. has a 52-week low of $1,623.76 and a 52-week high of $2,232.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $1,995.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $2,012.08.

First Citizens BancShares (NASDAQ:FCNCA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $44.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $43.31 by $1.55. First Citizens BancShares had a return on equity of 11.48% and a net margin of 15.62%.The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.20 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $37.79 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that First Citizens BancShares, Inc. will post 177.84 earnings per share for the current year.

First Citizens BancShares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th were given a $2.10 dividend. This represents a $8.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. First Citizens BancShares’s payout ratio is 4.83%.

Insider Transactions at First Citizens BancShares

In related news, CEO Frank B. Holding, Jr. acquired 528 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $1,813.37 per share, with a total value of $957,459.36. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 64,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $116,237,017. This represents a 0.83% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 7,286 shares of company stock valued at $12,722,668. 14.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

First Citizens BancShares Profile

First Citizens BancShares, Inc is the bank holding company for First Citizens Bank, a full‑service commercial bank headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company traces its roots to a community bank founded in 1898 and has grown into a diversified financial services organization that operates through its banking subsidiary to serve retail, commercial and institutional clients.

First Citizens offers a broad suite of banking products and services, including consumer and business deposit accounts, commercial and industrial lending, real estate and mortgage lending, treasury and cash management, and specialized lending solutions.