Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. Grows Position in Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB)

Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) by 7.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,332 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 232 shares during the quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Fifth Third Bancorp were worth $143,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Fifth Third Bancorp in the second quarter worth $33,337,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 3.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,774,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $889,978,000 after acquiring an additional 732,651 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 896.7% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 648,886 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,678,000 after acquiring an additional 583,781 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 38.7% in the second quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,433,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,323,000 after acquiring an additional 399,900 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 4.8% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,679,671 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $371,837,000 after acquiring an additional 399,827 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.79% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Fifth Third Bancorp from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Fifth Third Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Fifth Third Bancorp from $47.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Fifth Third Bancorp from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Fifth Third Bancorp from $43.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.62.

Fifth Third Bancorp Price Performance

NASDAQ FITB opened at $48.16 on Thursday. Fifth Third Bancorp has a one year low of $26.89 and a one year high of $49.07. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $44.52 and a 200 day moving average of $40.92. The company has a market capitalization of $32.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.00, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.21. 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 (NASDAQ:FITB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.83 by ($0.05). Fifth Third Bancorp had a return on equity of 14.58% and a net margin of 16.58%. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.92 earnings per share. Fifth Third Bancorp’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

Fifth Third Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were issued a $0.37 dividend. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. This is an increase from Fifth Third Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. Fifth Third Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fifth Third Bancorp news, EVP Kristine R. Garrett sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.67, for a total value of $327,525.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,441,720.71. This trade represents a 11.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.50% 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.