ING Group (NYSE:ING) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) shares hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as $35.09 and last traded at $35.09, with a volume of 8334 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $34.93.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ING. Zacks Research raised ING Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded ING Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ING Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

ING Group Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $31.67 and its 200-day moving average is $29.54. The stock has a market cap of $100.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.04. ING Group had a net margin of 28.15% and a return on equity of 12.59%. The company had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.99 billion. On average, analysts expect that ING Group, N.V. will post 2.84 EPS for the current year.

ING Group Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.458 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 262.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 10th. ING Group’s dividend payout ratio is 28.73%.

Institutional Trading of ING Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in ING Group by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 61,807 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,940,000 after acquiring an additional 2,255 shares during the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. bought a new stake in ING Group in the second quarter valued at about $349,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in ING Group by 3.5% during the second quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $323,000 after buying an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in ING Group by 23.3% during the second quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,642 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $397,000 after buying an additional 2,386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gradient Investments LLC lifted its holdings in ING Group by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 191,552 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,011,000 after buying an additional 10,016 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 4.49% of the company’s stock.

About ING Group

ING Group N.V. is a Dutch multinational financial services company headquartered in Amsterdam. Formed through the consolidation of Dutch financial businesses, ING operates as a banking and financial services group that serves retail, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates and institutional clients. The company is organized under a two-tier governance model common in the Netherlands, with an Executive Board responsible for day-to-day management and a Supervisory Board providing oversight.

ING’s principal activities include retail and direct banking, commercial and wholesale banking, corporate lending, transaction services and cash management, and a range of investment and savings products.