Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat, I would like to know what your opinion is on Fifth Third Bancorp. Thanks for your time.

Article Excerpt

Fifth Third Bancorp, $6.88, symbol FITB on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 576.9 million; Market cap: $4 billion), is a bank that operates in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina. Its lead bank is Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati. In all, the company operates a network of 1,311 branches, including 95 Bank Mart locations (these are located in grocery stores and are open seven days a week), and 2,354 automated teller machines. Fifth Third operates through five business segments: commercial banking (which caters to larger businesses), branch banking (for individuals and small businesses), consumer lending (which provides mortgages and home-equity loans), investment advisors (for individuals, companies and not-for-profit organizations) and Fifth Third processing solutions (which handles the electronic transfer of funds, as well as, debit, credit and merchant transaction processing). In the three months ended March 31, 2009, Fifth Third’s revenue fell 12.5%, to $1.5 billion from $1.7 billion a year earlier. The…