MicroMarvel is a series of articles highlighting undercovered stock with less than a billion dollars Market Capitalization. These articles are not intended to be buy recommendations. They highlight stocks that may have limited trading volume and may be highly volatile so if you do decide to add them to your portfolio I highly recommend you use stop losses and limit orders.

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Today's MicroMarvel is the Maryland-based bank holding company First United (FUNC). I found the stock by using Barchart's powerful screening functions to find stocks with the highest technical buy signals, highest Weighted Alpha, superior current momentum, and having a Trend Seeker buy signal then used the Flipchart feature to review the charts for consistent price appreciation. Since the Trend Seeker signaled a buy on 10 /19 the stock gained 44.29%.

FUNC Price vs Daily Moving Averages (Barchart)

First United Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First United Bank & Trust which provides various retail and commercial banking services to businesses and individuals. It offers various deposit products, which includes checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. The company loan portfolio includes commercial loans secured by real estate, commercial equipment, vehicles, or other assets of the borrower; commercial real estate loans for residential and commercial development, agricultural purpose properties, and service industry buildings; residential mortgage loans; home equity lines of credit; residential real estate construction loans; and indirect and direct auto loans, student loans, term loans, and other secured and unsecured lines of credit and term loans. It also offers access to multi-million-dollar certificates of deposit and the insured cash sweep program including multi-million-dollar savings and demand deposits to municipalities, businesses, and consumers; and treasury management, cash sweep, and various checking services. In addition, the company provides trust services, which includes personal trust, investment agency accounts, charitable trusts, retirement accounts including IRA roll-overs, 401(k) accounts, and defined benefit plans, estate administration, and estate planning; and insurance products, brokerage services, and safe deposit and night depository facilities. First United Corporation was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Oakland, Maryland. 

Barchart's Opinion Trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 20 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com website when you read this report.

Barchart Technical Indicators:

• 100% technical buy signals
• 46.20+ Weighted Alpha
• 21.02% gain in the last year
• Trend Seeker buy signal
• Above its 20, 50 and 100-day moving averages
• 14 new highs and up 22.26% in the last month
• Relative Strength Index 87.61%
• Technical support level at $23.37
• Recently traded at $23.85 with 50-day moving average of $19.51

Fundamental Factors:

• Market Cap $159 million
• P/E 7.78
• Dividend yield 3.28%
• Revenue predicted to be down 6.30% this year but increase again by 5.50% next year
• Earnings estimated to decrease 13.10% next year

Analysts and Investor Sentiment -- I don't buy stocks because everyone else is buying, but I do realize that if major firms and investors are dumping a stock it's hard to make money swimming against the tide:

• Wall Street analysts have 1 hold recommendation in place
• The individual investors following the stock on Motley Fool voted 13 to 1 for the stock to beat the market with the most experienced investors voting 4 to 1 for the same result
• CFRA's MarketScope gives the stock a hold rating
• 806 investors are following the stock on Seeking Alpha

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