12,964 Shares in Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) Acquired by Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc.

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 12,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $447,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in FITB. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 57.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 737,397 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,551,000 after purchasing an additional 269,152 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 661,215 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $22,805,000 after purchasing an additional 69,273 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 48.0% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 350,894 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,102,000 after purchasing an additional 113,838 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,860,365 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $376,413,000 after purchasing an additional 393,937 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its stake in Fifth Third Bancorp by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 671,803 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,017,000 after purchasing an additional 27,610 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 equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (down from $42.00) on shares of Fifth Third Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $29.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays raised their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $34.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Fifth Third Bancorp from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fifth Third Bancorp

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

Fifth Third Bancorp Stock Performance

Fifth Third Bancorp stock traded up $2.03 during trading on Friday, reaching $36.25. The company had a trading volume of 13,812,000 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,509,247. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.27. Fifth Third Bancorp has a 52 week low of $22.46 and a 52 week high of $37.41.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.02. 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 $0.78 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Fifth Third Bancorp will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fifth Third Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.86%. Fifth Third Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.34%.

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.