Fulton Financial Corporation FULT announced a sequential dividend hike. The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of 18 cents per share, indicating a rise of 5.9% from the prior payout. The dividend will be paid out on Jan. 15, 2025, to its shareholders of record as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Prior to the current hike, the company increased its dividend by 6.3% to 17 cents per share in December 2023. FULT raised its quarterly dividend eight times in the last five years. Further, it has a five-year annualized dividend growth of 6.7%. Currently, the company's payout ratio is 38% of earnings.

Considering the closing price of $19.67 on Dec. 18, currently, Fulton Financial's dividend yield is 3.46%, which is impressive compared with the industry average of 2.41%.

Fulton Financial Corporation Dividend Yield (TTM)

Fulton Financial Corporation dividend-yield-ttm | Fulton Financial Corporation Quote

Fulton’s Share Repurchase Plan

Concurrently, the company also announced a new repurchase program under which it is authorized to repurchase up to $125 million worth of shares. Under this program, up to $25 million is likely to be used to repurchase shares of Fulton’s preferred stock. The new program will be effective from Jan. 1 and will expire on Dec. 31, 2025.

Purchases under the 2025 Program may be undertaken from time to time in open market transactions at current market prices, privately negotiated transactions or through other mechanisms in line with federal securities regulations. The 2025 Program may be stopped at any time at the discretion of the board and does not obligate Fulton to repurchase any of its securities.

Apart from the new repurchase program, Fulton has an existing program in place. In December 2023, the company announced a new repurchase program, under which, it is authorized to repurchase up to $125 million worth of shares. As of Sept. 30, 2024, it had $95 million worth of shares remaining under the repurchase authorization.

FULT’s Sustainable Capital Distribution Plan

The company enjoys a decent liquidity position. As of Sept. 30, 2024, FULT had a total cash and cash equivalents of $1.4 billion higher than the total current debt of $1.1 billion. 

Fulton’s trailing 12-month return on equity (ROE) indicates its growth potential. The company’s ROE of 11.33% compares favorably with 8.22% for the industry. Thus, this indicates that FULT is more efficient in using its shareholder funds.

Supported by its earnings strength and decent balance sheet, the company is expected to continue with efficient capital distribution activities. Through this, Fulton will keep enhancing the value of its shareholders.

Fulton Stock’s Price Performance and Zacks Rank

Over the past six months, shares of FULT have gained 23.6% compared with the industry’s growth of 33.3%.

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Fulton currently sports a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Other Finance Stocks Taking Similar Steps

Earlier this month, SEI Investments Company’s SEIC board of directors announced a semi-annual cash dividend of 49 cents per share, representing an increase of 6.5% from the prior payout. The dividend will be paid out on Jan. 8, 2025, to its shareholders on record as of Dec. 27, 2024.

Apart from regular dividend hikes, the company also has a share repurchase program. In October 2024, SEIC’s board of directors approved a $400 million increase to its stock repurchase program, bringing the total available authorization to approximately $429 million. 

Similarly, Raymond James RJF announced enhanced capital distribution plans, including a dividend hike and a new share buyback program.  RJF's board of directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents per share, representing an increase of 11.1% from the prior payout. The new dividend will be paid out on Jan. 16, 2025, to its shareholders on record as of Jan. 2, 2025.

Also, RJF’s board authorized the repurchase of its shares of common stock, aggregating to $1.5 billion, with no expiration date. This replaces the previous buyback program of $1.5 billion announced last December. Under the previous program, around $644 million remained as of Dec. 3, 2024.

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