Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) Board Authorizes Stock Repurchase Plan

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 16th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $150.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the bank to buy up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Fulton Financial Trading Up 0.3%

FULT opened at $20.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $18.42. Fulton Financial has a 1-year low of $14.32 and a 1-year high of $21.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.70 and a beta of 0.86.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 8th. The bank reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Fulton Financial had a return on equity of 12.75% and a net margin of 19.01%.The business had revenue of $236.96 million during the quarter. Analysts expect that Fulton Financial will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fulton Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.19 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 31st. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. This is a boost from Fulton Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Fulton Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.