Barclays Maintains Fifth Third Bancorp's Rating and PT

Barclays published a research report on Fifth Third Bancorp

Friday maintaining its rating at Equal Weight and holding the price target steady at $16. In the report, Barclays writes, "We expect FITB to increase its quarterly dividend from $0.08 to the $0.10-$0.11 area and say it intends to repurchase $400mn shares between now and the end of 1Q13. Its dividend implies a 25-30% payout ratio on current earnings and roughly a 3% yield. We wonder if FITB will opt to go to the lower end to give it more flexibility to increase it again with CCAR 2013, which would commence in 2Q13. A $400m share repurchase program (35-40% of net income over that span) equates to 28mn shares, or 3% of outstandings. It could do half under its existing authorization and half under a new plan. Hereto we would expect an additional request with CCAR 2013." Fifth Third Bancorp traded around $14.40 Friday, up about 13.15 percent year-to-date.