Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Holdings in Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT - Free Report) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,383,504 shares of the bank's stock after acquiring an additional 285,376 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 12.30% of Fulton Financial worth $431,554,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of FULT. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in Fulton Financial by 193.4% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,294 shares of the bank's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 853 shares during the period. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Fulton Financial in the third quarter valued at $33,000. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fulton Financial during the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Fulton Financial by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,455 shares of the bank's stock worth $99,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fulton Financial by 16,041.2% in the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 5,488 shares of the bank's stock worth $106,000 after acquiring an additional 5,454 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 72.02% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on FULT. Hovde Group lifted their price target on Fulton Financial from $22.00 to $22.50 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Fulton Financial from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com raised Fulton Financial from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Stephens raised shares of Fulton Financial from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Fulton Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $20.64.

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Fulton Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FULT traded down $1.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $15.13. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,523,930 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,506,720. Fulton Financial Co. has a 12 month low of $13.87 and a 12 month high of $22.49. The firm has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.64 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $19.13 and a 200-day moving average of $19.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 quarter last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Fulton Financial Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fulton Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.76%. Fulton Financial's payout ratio is currently 45.86%.

Insider Activity at Fulton Financial

In related news, President Angela M. Snyder sold 13,322 shares of Fulton Financial stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.69, for a total value of $275,632.18. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 63,682 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,317,580.58. This trade represents a 17.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.07% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.