Swiss National Bank Trims Position in First Horizon Co. (NYSE:FHN)

Swiss National Bank trimmed its stake in shares of First Horizon Co. (NYSE:FHN) by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,067,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,000 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in First Horizon were worth $16,578,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in First Horizon by 106.5% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 622,481 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,668,000 after acquiring an additional 321,098 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in First Horizon by 3.5% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 16,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after acquiring an additional 559 shares in the last quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC grew its stake in First Horizon by 2.6% during the third quarter. Curi RMB Capital LLC now owns 400,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,212,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in First Horizon by 240.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 47,724 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $741,000 after acquiring an additional 33,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Asset Management LLC grew its stake in First Horizon by 25.6% during the third quarter. Summit Asset Management LLC now owns 19,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $308,000 after acquiring an additional 4,045 shares in the last quarter. 80.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at First Horizon

In related news, Director Harry V. Barton, Jr. sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.92, for a total value of $199,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 166,840 shares in the company, valued at $3,323,452.80. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP David T. Popwell sold 100,974 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.77, for a total transaction of $1,996,255.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 519,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,278,937.02. This represents a 16.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.87% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wedbush cut shares of First Horizon from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of First Horizon from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of First Horizon from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of First Horizon from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $17.00 price objective on shares of First Horizon in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.38.

First Horizon Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FHN opened at $20.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. First Horizon Co. has a 12 month low of $11.87 and a 12 month high of $21.01. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $17.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.26. The stock has a market cap of $11.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.17, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.86.

First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) last posted its 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. First Horizon had a net margin of 15.43% and a return on equity of 9.51%. The firm had revenue of $1.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $821.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that First Horizon Co. will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

First Horizon announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, October 29th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 10.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

First Horizon Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. First Horizon’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.48%.

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.