First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The financial services provider reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.01, RTT News reports. First Horizon had a net margin of 17.80% and a return on equity of 9.94%. The company had revenue of $819.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $809.51 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

First Horizon Stock Up 1.9 %

FHN stock opened at $14.17 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $7.86 billion, a PE ratio of 9.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.34. First Horizon has a 52 week low of $8.99 and a 52 week high of $18.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13.

First Horizon Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. First Horizon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.22%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of FHN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in First Horizon by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,946,272 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $806,359,000 after acquiring an additional 171,222 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in First Horizon by 5.7% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,689,257 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $281,883,000 after acquiring an additional 1,321,075 shares in the last quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP raised its stake in First Horizon by 14.2% during the fourth quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 10,162,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $143,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,262,500 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in First Horizon by 9.9% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 7,849,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $184,381,000 after acquiring an additional 704,662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its stake in First Horizon by 2.6% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,740,147 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $63,256,000 after acquiring an additional 145,977 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.28% of the company’s stock.

First Horizon declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, January 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $650.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 7.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FHN shares. UBS Group raised shares of First Horizon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $15.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of First Horizon from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $16.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Friday, April 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of First Horizon from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of First Horizon from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of First Horizon from $16.00 to $17.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, First Horizon presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.00.

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.