Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 285,376 Shares of Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT)

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 22,383,504 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 285,376 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of Fulton Financial worth $431,554,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of FULT. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fulton Financial by 35.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,582,036 shares of the bank’s stock worth $49,782,000 after buying an additional 673,559 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Fulton Financial by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,544,159 shares of the bank’s stock worth $191,166,000 after purchasing an additional 444,219 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Fulton Financial by 130.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 557,303 shares of the bank’s stock worth $10,104,000 after purchasing an additional 315,435 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Fulton Financial by 79.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 420,636 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,626,000 after purchasing an additional 186,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Fulton Financial during the third quarter valued at about $1,784,000. 72.02% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on FULT shares. Stephens raised Fulton Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Fulton Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Hovde Group upped their target price on shares of Fulton Financial from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. StockNews.com raised Fulton Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Fulton Financial from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.64.

Fulton Financial Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of FULT opened at $17.81 on Wednesday. Fulton Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.87 and a fifty-two week high of $22.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. The company’s fifty day moving average is $19.38 and its 200 day moving average is $19.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a PE ratio of 11.34 and a beta of 0.76.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.06. Fulton Financial had a net margin of 15.87% and a return on equity of 11.41%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Fulton Financial Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fulton Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. Fulton Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.86%.

Insider Activity

In other Fulton Financial news, President Angela M. Snyder sold 13,322 shares of Fulton Financial stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.69, for a total transaction of $275,632.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 63,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,317,580.58. The trade was a 17.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.07% of the company’s stock.

About Fulton Financial

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.