Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) Lowered to “Sell” at StockNews.com

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday.

FITB has been the topic of several other reports. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Fifth Third Bancorp from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America increased their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Argus increased their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Fifth Third Bancorp from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.28.

Fifth Third Bancorp Trading Up 1.9 %

FITB opened at $44.05 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.63, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Fifth Third Bancorp has a one year low of $22.93 and a one year high of $45.71.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.05). Fifth Third Bancorp had a return on equity of 14.58% and a net margin of 16.58%. The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.92 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.33 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jude Schramm sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total transaction of $840,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 114,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,805,724. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FITB. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp by 13.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 46,596,261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,733,847,000 after buying an additional 5,512,333 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp by 3.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,757,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $356,031,000 after buying an additional 281,494 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp by 4.8% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,679,671 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,837,000 after buying an additional 399,827 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp by 2.3% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,434,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $165,015,000 after buying an additional 99,593 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp by 3.4% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,701,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,096,000 after buying an additional 56,298 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.79% of the company’s stock.

About Fifth Third Bancorp

Fifth Third Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Fifth Third Bank, National Association that engages in the provision of a range of financial products and services in the United States. It operates through three segments: Commercial Banking, Consumer and Small Business Banking, and Wealth and Asset Management.