Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) Director Evan Bayh Acquires 3,000 Shares

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) Director Evan Bayh bought 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $41.22 per share, for a total transaction of $123,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 84,942 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,501,309.24. The trade was a 3.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Fifth Third Bancorp Trading Down 1.1%

NASDAQ FITB opened at $41.69 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $44.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.92. The company has a market capitalization of $27.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.95. Fifth Third Bancorp has a 12 month low of $32.25 and a 12 month high of $49.07.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.06. Fifth Third Bancorp had a net margin of 18.67% and a return on equity of 13.41%. The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.34 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. Fifth Third Bancorp’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fifth Third Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This is an increase from Fifth Third Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. Fifth Third Bancorp’s payout ratio is 47.76%.

Institutional Trading of Fifth Third Bancorp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Activest Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 1,043.3% in the second quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 686 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 626 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 91.3% in the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares during the period. Finally, GoalVest Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 246.3% in the second quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $45.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.45.

Fifth Third Bancorp Company Profile

Fifth Third Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Fifth Third Bank, National Association that engages in the provision of a range of financial products and services in the United States. It operates through three segments: Commercial Banking, Consumer and Small Business Banking, and Wealth and Asset Management.