Short Interest in Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) Drops By 7.9%

Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,470,000 shares, a decrease of 7.9% from the September 30th total of 5,940,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,400,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FULT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Fulton Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Fulton Financial from $18.50 to $18.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $21.00 target price on shares of Fulton Financial in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.83.

Institutional Trading of Fulton Financial

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in Fulton Financial by 34.5% during the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 198,185 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,149,000 after acquiring an additional 50,842 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Fulton Financial by 78.8% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 83,162 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,321,000 after acquiring an additional 36,663 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its stake in Fulton Financial by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 143,357 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,278,000 after acquiring an additional 1,538 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Fulton Financial during the 1st quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Fulton Financial by 10.4% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 74,581 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,185,000 after purchasing an additional 7,017 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.02% of the company’s stock.

Fulton Financial Price Performance

Shares of Fulton Financial stock traded down $0.28 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $18.11. 1,244,499 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,465,406. The company has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.25 and a beta of 0.73. Fulton Financial has a fifty-two week low of $12.75 and a fifty-two week high of $20.33. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $487.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $321.00 million. Fulton Financial had a net margin of 16.37% and a return on equity of 11.14%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.43 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Fulton Financial will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fulton Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. Fulton Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.24%.

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.