Old North State Trust, a name whispering of established comfort, has quietly unloaded its holdings in First Bancorp. A transaction of $3.7 million – a sum that could build a few schools, or simply vanish into the currents of larger fortunes. They call it portfolio adjustment. I call it a reckoning, however small, with the shifting sands of the Carolinas.
The fund, once a believer in First Bancorp – 72,921 shares, to be precise – now holds zero. A clean break. It’s a story told not in booming pronouncements, but in the subtraction of digits from a ledger. They held 2.3% of their assets in this bank, a not insignificant stake, now dispersed like smoke. The market, of course, barely noticed.
Their new affections lie with the giants: Apple, SPY, Nvidia, Eli Lilly, Microsoft. Names that echo with the promise of relentless growth, of innovation divorced from the soil and the struggles of ordinary folk. Safe harbors, they are. But safety, my friends, often comes at the cost of connection.
First Bancorp itself, a regional creature, has been showing a bit of muscle. Up 33% over the past year. Outperforming the S&P 500 by a comfortable margin. A respectable showing. But numbers, like polished stones, can hide the cracks beneath the surface. They offer deposit accounts, loans, mortgages – the basic tools of survival in a world demanding constant transaction. They serve the small businesses, the striving professionals, the ones who build the backbone of these two states.
Here’s the ledger, stripped bare:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Revenue (TTM) | $543.12 million |
| Net Income (TTM) | $111.05 million |
| Dividend Yield | 1.68% |
| Price (as of market close 2026-03-23) | $54.18 |
They report healthy net interest income, around $106 million in the last quarter. Loan balances are growing. But a shadow falls across these figures – a securities loss, a subtraction from the earned profit. They adjust the numbers, smooth the edges, present a more palatable picture. It’s a familiar dance.
The fund’s retreat isn’t a condemnation of First Bancorp, not precisely. It’s a statement about the currents of capital, about the preference for scale and predictability. Regional banks, tied to the fortunes of specific communities, are seen as… vulnerable. Subject to the whims of local economies, the shifting tides of interest rates. Easier to abandon than to nurture.
They claim it’s about strategy. A shift in portfolio allocation. But I see something else. A quiet detachment. A turning away from the places where real lives are lived, the struggles that rarely make the headlines. The fund seeks its fortune among the giants, leaving the smaller creatures to fend for themselves. It’s the way of the world, isn’t it? The strong consume the weak. The rich grow richer. And the rest of us… we simply carry on.
- Top holdings after the filing: AAPL: $14.87 million (8.8% of AUM)
- SPY: $11.33 million (6.7% of AUM)
- NVDA: $9.20 million (5.4% of AUM)
- LLY: $7.97 million (4.7% of AUM)
- MSFT: $6.72 million (4.0% of AUM)
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2026-03-24 18:52