Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) Announces Stock Repurchase Plan

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 16th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $150.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to reacquire up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

FULT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Fulton Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Fulton Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Fulton Financial from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Fulton Financial from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Fulton Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.90.

Fulton Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FULT traded up $0.46 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $20.37. 4,398,249 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,630,536. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $18.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.41. The company has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.66 and a beta of 0.86. Fulton Financial has a 52-week low of $14.32 and a 52-week high of $21.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 8th. The bank reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $236.96 million for the quarter. Fulton Financial had a net margin of 19.01% and a return on equity of 12.75%. Equities research analysts forecast that Fulton Financial will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Fulton Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. This is an increase from Fulton Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 31st. Fulton Financial’s payout ratio is 37.70%.

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.