Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the bank on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a positive change from Fulton Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Fulton Financial has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.2% annually over the last three years. Fulton Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 39.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Fulton Financial to earn $1.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.8%.

Fulton Financial Stock Performance

FULT traded down $0.27 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $19.40. 1,300,580 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,439,964. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.28 and a beta of 0.78. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Fulton Financial has a 1-year low of $13.87 and a 1-year high of $22.49.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.06. Fulton Financial had a return on equity of 11.33% and a net margin of 16.37%. The company had revenue of $487.33 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $321.00 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.43 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fulton Financial will post 1.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Fulton Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Piper Sandler set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Fulton Financial in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Fulton Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Stephens upgraded Fulton Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fulton Financial

In related news, CEO Curtis J. Myers sold 24,192 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was 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 approximately $3,299,817.36. The trade was a 13.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.07% of the company’s stock.

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.