Voya Investment Management LLC Purchases 57,622 Shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 30.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 248,668 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 57,622 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $13,219,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 0.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,548,977 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,306,817,000 after acquiring an additional 209,467 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 1.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 23,671,355 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,059,293,000 after acquiring an additional 283,321 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 19.1% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,366,754 shares of the bank’s stock worth $294,007,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180,390 shares in the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in Citizens Financial Group by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 6,801,856 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $278,672,000 after purchasing an additional 554,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management grew its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,562,791 shares of the bank’s stock worth $293,685,000 after buying an additional 833,399 shares in the last quarter. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CFG shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $56.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Monday, December 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Citizens Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.57.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of CFG stock opened at $59.87 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $53.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.27. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.60 and a 1-year high of $59.90. The company has a market cap of $25.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.48% and a net margin of 14.17%.The company had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.10 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 29th were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 29th. This is a positive change from Citizens Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.54%.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc (NYSE: CFG) is a bank holding company that provides a broad range of banking and financial services to individuals, small and middle-market businesses, corporations and institutional clients. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens conducts its banking operations principally through its primary banking subsidiary, Citizens Bank, and serves customers through a combination of branch locations, ATMs and digital channels. The company is publicly traded and operates under the regulatory framework applicable to U.S.