FULT

Fulton is executing well on the core regional-bank playbook. The MD&A shows net interest margin widened to 3.51% from 3.42%, net interest income grew $76M to roughly $1.0B, and the efficiency ratio fell to 57.6% from 60.8% — three of the four levers a bank investor cares about all moving the right way at the same time. That flowed through to a $103M jump in net income available to common shareholders ($381M vs $278M) and diluted EPS of $2.08 vs $1.57, a 32% increase. Return on average common equity hit 12.09% GAAP and 15.70% on a tangible operating basis, which is solidly above cost of capital for a community bank. The headline 'revenue -6.5%' figure in the XBRL pull captures only non-interest income (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax), not net interest income — the real top line per MD&A is closer to $1.28B and grew, so the P/S ratio of 15.5x is structurally misleading for a bank and should be ignored in favor of P/E and P/B.

Credit quality is benign and slightly improving: non-performing assets fell to 0.58% of total assets from 0.69%, and although net charge-offs ticked up to 0.21% from 0.19% they remain well within historical norms, with the ACL reserve at a healthy 1.51% of net loans ($364.5M). The balance sheet is steady — assets $32.1B, equity up 9.2% to $3.49B, liabilities-to-equity at 8.2x which is normal bank leverage. Capital return is meaningful and accelerating: $59.7M of stock repurchased in 2025 at $18.16 average (well below today's $23.87), and the Board authorized a new $150M 2026 Repurchase Program in December 2025. Dividends paid grew 7.2% to $141M, giving a ~3.3% yield at the current price.