Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) Rating Lowered to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on FITB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a market perform rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Fifth Third Bancorp from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Fifth Third Bancorp from $40.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Stephens reissued an equal weight rating and issued a $41.00 price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in a report on Tuesday, June 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Fifth Third Bancorp from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fifth Third Bancorp has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $41.16.

Fifth Third Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of FITB opened at $42.62 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.22. Fifth Third Bancorp has a twelve month low of $22.49 and a twelve month high of $43.37. The company has a 50 day moving average of $40.97 and a 200-day moving average of $38.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.85 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $3.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. Fifth Third Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.79% and a net margin of 17.41%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fifth Third Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.37 per share. This is an increase from Fifth Third Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.47%. Fifth Third Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.98%.

Insider Transactions at Fifth Third Bancorp

In other news, EVP Jude Schramm sold 20,000 shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total transaction of $840,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 114,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,805,724. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Mitchell Stuart Feiger sold 12,000 shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.21, for a total transaction of $494,520.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 20,961 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $863,802.81. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Jude Schramm sold 20,000 shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.00, for a total value of $840,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 114,422 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,805,724. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 54,500 shares of company stock valued at $2,269,920. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,343,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,012,472,000 after purchasing an additional 734,403 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 13.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 46,596,261 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,733,847,000 after purchasing an additional 5,512,333 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 3.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,757,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $356,031,000 after purchasing an additional 281,494 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth $257,189,000. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 2.3% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 4,434,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $165,015,000 after purchasing an additional 99,593 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.79% of the company’s stock.

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.