First Bancorp: CEO Sold Above $62, Shorts Now Rebuilding Below It

First Bancorp enters Thursday's Q3 print with short sellers adding exposure at the same time the CEO was selling stock, a rare alignment of bearish signals for a mid-cap regional bank that had been one of 2025's better performers in its peer group.

Short interest has climbed 2.2% over the past week to 5.19% of free float, roughly 2.15 million shares. That weekly build follows a modest monthly pullback, placing this firmly in the category of fresh short-seller interest rather than a sustained campaign. Borrow remains cheap at 0.52% cost to borrow, and availability is loose at nearly 599%, meaning there is ample room in the lending pool to support further short-selling without any squeeze risk. The put/call ratio jumped to 0.033 on October 21, more than two standard deviations above its 20-day average of 0.013, a relative spike even though the absolute ratio remains thin given the stock's low options volume.

The more consequential signal is what the CEO did in late September. Richard Moore sold 23,343 shares across two open-market transactions on September 28 and 29, collecting just over $1.47 million at prices between $62 and $63. Neither sale was executed under a pre-arranged 10b5-1 plan, making both discretionary. The stock now trades at $61.04, below every price at which Moore sold. The 90-day insider net is negative at roughly 23,100 shares and around $1.45 million in outflows. One director, Katharine Caldwell, bought 231 shares for roughly $14,800 in September. That purchase does not materially change the picture.

Analysts have moved in the same direction, though less sharply. Raymond James downgraded the stock from Strong Buy to Outperform on October 6, trimming its target from $72 to $71. That follows a string of target raises through the summer from Keefe Bruyette and Piper Sandler, both of which maintained existing ratings without adding fresh conviction. The consensus mean target sits at $69, about 13% above the current price, but that gap has narrowed as the stock drifted lower from its summer highs. The bull case centres on loan growth, net interest margin expansion from asset repricing, and the possibility of bond portfolio restructuring. Bears point to credit cost risk and potential deterioration in the markets where the bank operates, concerns that carry more weight when the CEO is selling discretionary shares at current levels.

Peers have moved more decisively in recent sessions. UCB and FNB both rose more than 4% on October 21 alone, while FBNC slipped 0.9%. The one-week return of 3% for First Bancorp tracks broadly with its peer median of roughly 2.7%, so the relative performance gap is an intraday story rather than a weekly one, but the direction divergence on a day when regional banks broadly rallied is worth noting ahead of results.

The print on October 23 will test whether the bank's net interest margin trajectory and credit quality can justify a valuation that still sits above book at 1.28x price-to-book, with the CEO's September sales providing an uncomfortable reference point for where management judged fair value to be.