Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes $279,000 Position in Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 14,482 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $279,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in Fulton Financial by 20.3% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 38,513 shares of the bank’s stock worth $743,000 after acquiring an additional 6,500 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fulton Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $241,000. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Fulton Financial by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 34,848 shares of the bank’s stock worth $672,000 after purchasing an additional 2,192 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Fulton Financial by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 546,026 shares of the bank’s stock worth $10,527,000 after purchasing an additional 74,993 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Fulton Financial by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,051,823 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,279,000 after buying an additional 44,237 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Fulton Financial Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ FULT opened at $17.24 on Wednesday. Fulton Financial Co. has a 1 year low of $13.87 and a 1 year high of $22.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.98 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $19.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.90.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 in the previous year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fulton Financial Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fulton Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from Fulton Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.18%. Fulton Financial’s payout ratio is 45.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Fulton Financial 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.