Arizona State Retirement System Decreases Holdings in Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT)

Arizona State Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 45,854 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,266 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Fulton Financial were worth $755,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AlphaMark Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fulton Financial by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 19,714 shares of the bank’s stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 993 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC bought a new position in Fulton Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $109,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Fulton Financial by 82.8% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,724 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 781 shares during the period. CIC Wealth LLC bought a new position in Fulton Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $180,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Fulton Financial by 16.0% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,682,119 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,370,000 after purchasing an additional 232,462 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 72.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FULT has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Fulton Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 13th. Stephens cut their price objective on shares of Fulton Financial from $16.00 to $15.50 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Fulton Financial from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Fulton Financial from $17.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.30.

Fulton Financial Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of FULT opened at $14.43 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.88. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.96 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Fulton Financial Co. has a 1-year low of $9.64 and a 1-year high of $17.06.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $271.38 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $268.70 million. Fulton Financial had a net margin of 18.31% and a return on equity of 11.85%. Fulton Financial’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.48 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fulton Financial Co. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fulton Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.71%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 28th. 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.