Verus Capital Partners LLC Sells 7,122 Shares of Fifth Third Bancorp $FITB

Verus Capital Partners LLC trimmed its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) by 47.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,866 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,122 shares during the quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp were worth $324,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 4.1% in the second quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 6,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $272,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors raised its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 40.2% in the second quarter. Ibex Wealth Advisors now owns 15,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $647,000 after buying an additional 4,515 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at $321,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp by 25.8% during the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 12,232 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $503,000 after acquiring an additional 2,507 shares during the period. Finally, Joseph Group Capital Management increased its holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management now owns 86,521 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,559,000 after acquiring an additional 12,430 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on FITB. Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from $46.00 to $49.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Fifth Third Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Fifth Third Bancorp from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.35.

Fifth Third Bancorp Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock opened at $43.21 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. Fifth Third Bancorp has a 1 year low of $32.25 and a 1 year high of $49.07. The firm has a market cap of $28.56 billion, a PE ratio of 12.90, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.84.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.34 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fifth Third Bancorp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. This is an increase from Fifth Third Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. Fifth Third Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.76%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Evan Bayh acquired 3,000 shares of Fifth Third Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $41.22 per share, for a total transaction of $123,660.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 84,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,501,309.24. This trade represents a 3.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Fifth Third Bancorp 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.