Clearbridge Investments LLC Increases Stake in First Horizon Co. (NYSE:FHN)

Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of First Horizon Co. (NYSE:FHN) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,016,853 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 122,834 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 0.72% of First Horizon worth $56,879,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its position in shares of First Horizon by 30.2% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 278,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,948,000 after acquiring an additional 64,749 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of First Horizon by 4.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 56,775,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $625,661,000 after acquiring an additional 2,276,977 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of First Horizon by 16.0% during the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 994,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,960,000 after acquiring an additional 137,525 shares during the last quarter. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of First Horizon during the fourth quarter worth $1,019,000. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of First Horizon during the fourth quarter worth $2,222,000. 80.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of First Horizon from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of First Horizon from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of First Horizon from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on shares of First Horizon in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of First Horizon from $17.00 to $17.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.15.

First Horizon Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE FHN opened at $15.97 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. First Horizon Co. has a 12 month low of $10.08 and a 12 month high of $16.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.17. The stock has a market cap of $8.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.17, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.94.

First Horizon (NYSE:FHN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $819.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $809.51 million. First Horizon had a net margin of 16.07% and a return on equity of 8.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that First Horizon Co. will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

First Horizon Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. First Horizon’s payout ratio is presently 41.96%.

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.