Royal Bank of Canada Upgrades First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) to Outperform

Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of First Horizon (NYSE:FHN - Free Report) from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $18.00 target price on the financial services provider's stock, up from their previous target price of $16.00.

FHN has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on First Horizon from $16.00 to $17.50 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on First Horizon from $17.00 to $17.50 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. StockNews.com downgraded First Horizon from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays initiated coverage on First Horizon in a research report on Friday, March 8th. They issued an overweight rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group raised First Horizon from a neutral rating to a buy rating and upped their target price for the company from $15.50 to $16.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $15.62.

First Horizon Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE FHN traded down $0.12 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $15.03. The stock had a trading volume of 5,775,236 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,284,038. The business's fifty day moving average price is $14.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The firm has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.90, a P/E/G ratio of 4.28 and a beta of 0.94. First Horizon has a 52-week low of $8.99 and a 52-week high of $18.99.

First Horizon (NYSE:FHN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $784.20 million. First Horizon had a return on equity of 9.94% and a net margin of 17.80%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. Analysts expect that First Horizon will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

First Horizon declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, January 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $650.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 7.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

First Horizon Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.99%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. First Horizon's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.22%.

Institutional Trading of First Horizon

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in First Horizon by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,946,272 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $806,359,000 after purchasing an additional 171,222 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in First Horizon by 5.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 24,689,257 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $281,883,000 after buying an additional 1,321,075 shares during the period. North Reef Capital Management LP boosted its position in First Horizon by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 10,162,500 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $143,901,000 after buying an additional 1,262,500 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in First Horizon by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,641,140 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $136,526,000 after buying an additional 883,503 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its position in shares of First Horizon by 62.2% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 8,898,809 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $126,007,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411,600 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.28% of the company's stock.

About First Horizon

First Horizon Corporation operates as the bank holding company for First Horizon Bank that provides various financial services. The company operates through Regional Banking and Specialty Banking segments. It offers general banking services for consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments.