Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP Decreases Stock Position in First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. $FIBK

Key Points

• Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP has reduced its stake in First Interstate BancSystem by 60.8%, bringing its holdings to 7,079 shares, valued at approximately $203,000.
• Analysts have mixed perspectives on First Interstate BancSystem, with Barclays upgrading it to "equal weight" and raising its target price to $32.00, while Wall Street Zen downgraded it to "sell".
• First Interstate BancSystem reported $0.69 earnings per share in its latest quarter, exceeding estimates, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.47 per share with a yield of 5.9%.

Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP decreased its holdings in First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ:FIBK - Free Report) by 60.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,079 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 10,988 shares during the quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP's holdings in First Interstate BancSystem were worth $203,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FIBK. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of First Interstate BancSystem by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 211,638 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $6,872,000 after purchasing an additional 5,425 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of First Interstate BancSystem during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,028,000. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its position in shares of First Interstate BancSystem by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 36,620 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,188,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of First Interstate BancSystem by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,045,741 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $163,836,000 after purchasing an additional 138,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of First Interstate BancSystem by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 47,715 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,549,000 after purchasing an additional 1,504 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.71% of the company's stock.

First Interstate BancSystem Price Performance

FIBK stock traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $32.15. The company's stock had a trading volume of 140,392 shares, compared to its average volume of 817,041. First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. has a 12 month low of $22.95 and a 12 month high of $36.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.46 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.88 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.65.

First Interstate BancSystem (NASDAQ:FIBK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $248.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $253.73 million. First Interstate BancSystem had a return on equity of 6.82% and a net margin of 16.04%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.58 EPS. On average, analysts expect that First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. will post 2.53 EPS for the current year.

First Interstate BancSystem Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 11th were given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. First Interstate BancSystem's dividend payout ratio is currently 84.68%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of First Interstate BancSystem from a "hold" rating to a "moderate buy" rating and set a $32.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of First Interstate BancSystem from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of First Interstate BancSystem from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of First Interstate BancSystem from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $32.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, First Interstate BancSystem presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $35.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director John M. Heyneman, Jr. sold 11,818 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.18, for a total transaction of $356,667.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,224 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,660.32. This represents a 69.35% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Susan Scott Heyneman Trust, Su sold 55,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.86, for a total value of $1,532,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 529,256 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,745,072.16. This represents a 9.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 121,818 shares of company stock valued at $3,600,017 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 8.20% of the company's stock.

First Interstate BancSystem Profile

First Interstate BancSystem, Inc operates as the bank holding company for First Interstate Bank that provides range of banking products and services in the United States. It offers various traditional depository products, including checking, savings, and time deposits; and repurchase agreements primarily for commercial and municipal depositors.