Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) Short Interest Update

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 21,030,000 shares, a growth of 19.2% from the February 29th total of 17,640,000 shares. Currently, 3.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 5,480,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on FITB shares. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $41.00 target price on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $29.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.50.

Fifth Third Bancorp Stock Down 1.4 %

FITB stock opened at $36.70 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $25.00 billion, a PE ratio of 11.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.89. Fifth Third Bancorp has a 52 week low of $22.46 and a 52 week high of $37.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 19th. The financial services provider reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $3.39 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.15 billion. Fifth Third Bancorp had a return on equity of 16.25% and a net margin of 18.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.04 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fifth Third Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.81%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Fifth Third Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO James C. Leonard sold 26,500 shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.66, for a total value of $971,490.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 229,344 shares in the company, valued at $8,407,751.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO James C. Leonard sold 26,500 shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.66, for a total value of $971,490.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 229,344 shares in the company, valued at $8,407,751.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Jude Schramm sold 5,000 shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.38, for a total transaction of $181,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 139,422 shares in the company, valued at $5,072,172.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. GoalVest Advisory LLC raised its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 145.5% during the fourth quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 560 shares in the last quarter. Denali Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Fifth Third Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 1,000.0% in the fourth quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the period. ICA Group Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 43.9% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.