StockNews.com Upgrades Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) to Hold

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Thursday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on FULT. Piper Sandler set a $21.00 price target on Fulton Financial in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Fulton Financial from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stephens upgraded shares of Fulton Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Fulton Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.33.

Fulton Financial Price Performance

Shares of FULT stock opened at $20.56 on Thursday. Fulton Financial has a twelve month low of $13.87 and a twelve month high of $22.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.14. The company has a market cap of $3.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.10 and a beta of 0.79.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Fulton Financial will post 1.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Curtis J. Myers sold 24,192 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.16, for a total transaction of $511,902.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,946 shares in the company, valued at $3,299,817.36. This represents a 13.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fulton Financial

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Fulton Financial by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 567,790 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $11,007,000 after purchasing an additional 34,844 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Fulton Financial by 130.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 557,303 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,104,000 after buying an additional 315,435 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new position in shares of Fulton Financial during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,489,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Fulton Financial by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,371,223 shares of the bank’s stock worth $79,264,000 after buying an additional 85,574 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of Fulton Financial by 145.7% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 89,378 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,620,000 after acquiring an additional 52,997 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.02% of the company’s stock.

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.