Short Interest in Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) Grows By 11.5%

Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,030,000 shares, a growth of 11.5% from the May 31st total of 7,200,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,570,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on FULT shares. Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded shares of Fulton Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $19.50 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Fulton Financial from $18.50 to $18.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson increased their price target on Fulton Financial from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Fulton Financial from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Stephens upped their price target on shares of Fulton Financial from $15.50 to $17.50 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fulton Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.40.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fulton Financial by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,444,753 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $320,061,000 after buying an additional 216,465 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Fulton Financial by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,918,831 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $196,188,000 after buying an additional 297,923 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in shares of Fulton Financial by 36.0% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,593,793 shares of the bank’s stock worth $43,043,000 after acquiring an additional 686,269 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fulton Financial by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,062,343 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,946,000 after acquiring an additional 100,902 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Fulton Financial by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,879,238 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $22,758,000 after acquiring an additional 8,292 shares during the period. 72.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Fulton Financial Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of FULT traded down $0.39 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $16.40. 751,087 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,411,815. The business has a fifty day moving average of $16.63 and a 200-day moving average of $15.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.98 billion, a PE ratio of 10.29 and a beta of 0.75. Fulton Financial has a 1-year low of $11.47 and a 1-year high of $17.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The bank reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.01. Fulton Financial had a net margin of 18.31% and a return on equity of 11.73%. The company had revenue of $230.36 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $268.90 million. Analysts expect that Fulton Financial will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Fulton Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, July 1st will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.15%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 1st. Fulton Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.24%.

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.