FABP heads into its May 6 earnings date carrying a 7.3% weekly gain and a legal cloud — a law firm publicly questioning whether shareholders are getting a fair deal in the bank's proposed sale.
The clearest story this week is not in the order book but in the headlines. On April 8, Kahn Swick & Foti announced an investigation into the adequacy of the price and process in Farmers Bancorp's proposed acquisition. That kind of announcement — standard fare for plaintiff law firms probing M&A deals — typically signals dissatisfied shareholders believe the bid undervalues the target. With the stock now at $51.49, the market appears to be pricing in some probability of a bump or competing offer. The 7.3% weekly move, which also represents the entirety of the one-month gain, looks less like organic momentum and more like deal-premium repricing.
Short interest data for FABP is too stale to be actionable — the most recent ORTEX estimate dates to early February 2025, showing a negligible 36 shares short. The borrow market tells the same story: availability has never been a meaningful constraint here. With utilization last recorded at zero and a 52-week peak of just 3.6%, there is no short-side pressure whatsoever. This is not a short-seller's stock. The interest in FABP is overwhelmingly on the long side, driven by the takeover premium.
The ORTEX short score of 29.6 and a sector score of 50 place the stock in the middle of the regional banking universe by bearish conviction, while the dividend score of 17 reflects the absence of a recent dividend — the last confirmed payout on record was a $0.32 quarterly dividend in April 2022. Whether that dividend history continues post-close depends entirely on the deal outcome. The combination of a thin public float, limited analyst coverage, and an OTC listing means there is no formal Street consensus to lean on here.
Earnings are due May 6. The recent history of post-print moves is subdued — the last four events produced one-day moves of flat, -0.75%, flat, and +2.4%. Five-day reactions have been similarly muted, in a range of -3.5% to +2.4%. Nothing in that pattern suggests the market has historically treated quarterly results as a major catalyst for this name. Under a pending deal, the May 6 release will draw more attention to any language management uses around the transaction than to the underlying financials.
Among loosely correlated peers, CZBT fell 6% on the week and MDVT dropped nearly 4%, while TRSB added about 5.9%. FABP's outperformance relative to this peer group reinforces the view that its weekly move is deal-driven rather than sector-driven.
The next focal point is the May 6 print — but more specifically any updated commentary on deal timing, shareholder vote scheduling, or response to the law-firm investigation that management chooses to make public.
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