Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.37 on January 15th

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 10th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.37 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, January 15th. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st.

Fifth Third Bancorp has increased its dividend by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Fifth Third Bancorp has a payout ratio of 40.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Fifth Third Bancorp to earn $3.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 40.9%.

Fifth Third Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FITB opened at $42.90 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $45.46 and a 200-day moving average of $42.16. The stock has a market cap of $28.77 billion, a PE ratio of 14.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Fifth Third Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $32.29 and a fifty-two week high of $49.07.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.05). Fifth Third Bancorp had a net margin of 16.58% and a return on equity of 14.58%. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fifth Third Bancorp news, EVP Kristine R. Garrett sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.67, for a total transaction of $327,525.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 55,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,441,720.71. This represents a 11.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FITB has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Baird R W lowered shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com lowered Fifth Third Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.32.

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.