Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) Raises Dividend to $0.18 Per Share

Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the bank on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Fulton Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Fulton Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.2% per year over the last three years. Fulton Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 41.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Fulton Financial to earn $1.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 40.0%.

Fulton Financial Stock Down 1.6 %

FULT opened at $19.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.67. Fulton Financial has a 52 week low of $13.87 and a 52 week high of $22.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.58 billion, a PE ratio of 12.44 and a beta of 0.78.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $487.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 firm posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Fulton Financial will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FULT. StockNews.com lowered shares of Fulton Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Stephens raised shares of Fulton Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Fulton Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $21.00 price objective on Fulton Financial in a report on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fulton Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $19.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Curtis J. Myers sold 24,192 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.16, for a total value of $511,902.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,299,817.36. This trade represents a 13.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.07% of the company’s stock.

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.