First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) Approves Stock Buyback Plan

First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, October 29th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 10.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

First Horizon Stock Up 1.5 %

NYSE FHN opened at $17.56 on Thursday. First Horizon has a 12 month low of $10.55 and a 12 month high of $17.93. The company has a market capitalization of $9.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.28, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $821.63 million. First Horizon had a return on equity of 9.51% and a net margin of 15.43%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that First Horizon will post 1.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

First Horizon Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.42%. First Horizon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.96%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FHN shares. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of First Horizon from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wedbush lowered shares of First Horizon from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird set a $17.00 price objective on First Horizon in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com raised First Horizon from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 20th. Finally, Raymond James cut First Horizon from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.92.

First Horizon Company Profile

First Horizon Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Horizon Bank that provides various financial services. The company operates through Regional Banking and Specialty Banking segments. It offers general banking services for consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments.