Brokerages Set Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) Target Price at $19.50

Shares of Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $19.50.

A number of brokerages recently commented on FULT. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Fulton Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Fulton Financial in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Stephens upgraded shares of Fulton Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Fulton Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th.

Fulton Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ FULT opened at $19.67 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $19.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.50. Fulton Financial has a 52-week low of $13.87 and a 52-week high of $22.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.45 and a beta of 0.78.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $487.33 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $321.00 million. Fulton Financial had a return on equity of 11.33% and a net margin of 16.37%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Fulton Financial will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

Fulton Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a $0.18 dividend. This is an increase from Fulton Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.66%. Fulton Financial’s payout ratio is presently 43.04%.

Insider Transactions at Fulton Financial

In related news, CEO Curtis J. Myers sold 24,192 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.16, for a total value of $511,902.72. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,946 shares in the company, valued at $3,299,817.36. This represents a 13.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Fulton Financial in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in Fulton Financial in the second quarter valued at about $46,000. Coston McIsaac & Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Fulton Financial during the third quarter worth about $54,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Fulton Financial by 21.9% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,840 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 691 shares during the period. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its stake in Fulton Financial by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 6,519 shares of the bank’s stock worth $118,000 after purchasing an additional 676 shares in the last quarter. 72.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fulton Financial Company Profile

Fulton Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company that provides consumer and commercial banking products and services in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia. It accepts various checking accounts and savings deposit products, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts.