Fulton Financial Co. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NASDAQ:FULT)

Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, March 18th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the bank on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.94%.

Fulton Financial has increased its dividend by an average of 7.2% annually over the last three years. Fulton Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 34.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Fulton Financial to earn $2.10 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 34.3%.

Fulton Financial Price Performance

Shares of FULT stock opened at $18.26 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $19.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.45. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a PE ratio of 11.63 and a beta of 0.76. Fulton Financial has a 52-week low of $13.87 and a 52-week high of $22.49.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 period last year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Fulton Financial will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Fulton Financial

In related news, President Angela M. Snyder sold 13,322 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.69, for a total value of $275,632.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 63,682 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,317,580.58. This represents a 17.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.