First Financial Bancorp (Nasdaq: FFBC) met its estimates last quarter, but investors hope that it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Jan. 25. First Financial is a bank holding company which engages in the business of commercial banking and other banking-related activities.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on First Financial Bancorp, with seven out of nine analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like First Financial Bancorp as much as competitor WesBanco overall. Two out of six analysts rate WesBanco a buy compared to two out of nine for First Financial Bancorp. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $94.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 7.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.28 per share. Estimates range from $0.25 to $0.30.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see FFBC as a good bet, with 56.5% assigning it an outperform rating. The community is divided on the stock, with 51% Fools giving it an outperform rating and 49% an underperform rating. Fools are keen on First Financial Bancorp, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 27 posts in the past 30 days. First Financial Bancorp's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
First Financial Bancorp's profit has risen year over year by an average of 11.8% over the past five quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Net Margin

15%

13.4%

13.9%

12.2%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.