Altfest L J & Co. Inc. Has $524,000 Holdings in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG)

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. grew its position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 25.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,805 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,248 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $524,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 60,391,319 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,575,006,000 after acquiring an additional 2,799,127 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 1.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,577,041 shares of the bank’s stock worth $776,775,000 after acquiring an additional 241,869 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 76.0% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,002,482 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $861,383,000 after purchasing an additional 8,203,831 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Citizens Financial Group by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 18,297,989 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $720,392,000 after buying an additional 2,785,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Citizens Financial Group by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,594,481 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $310,732,000 after purchasing an additional 621,715 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CFG shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $31.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays cut Citizens Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $38.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. TheStreet upgraded shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 26th. Wedbush dropped their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.63.

Citizens Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CFG traded up $0.35 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $36.17. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,476,907 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,915,121. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $32.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $29.76. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.77 and a fifty-two week high of $36.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company has a market cap of $16.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.55 and a beta of 1.36.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.60 by ($0.26). Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 13.19%. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.25 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 31st were paid a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, January 30th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.64%. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 54.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 4,508 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.54, for a total transaction of $151,198.32. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,885 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,471,902.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Citizens Financial Group Company Profile

Citizens Financial Group, Inc operates as the bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking.