NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) Stock Falls 5% – Time to Sell?

NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) fell 5% on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $17.32 and last traded at $17.2350. 590,477 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 3,879,167 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.15.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on NWG. Wall Street Zen lowered NatWest Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 9th. Berenberg Bank assumed coverage on NatWest Group in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded NatWest Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NatWest Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded NatWest Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

NatWest Group Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $68.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.03.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $5.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.90 billion. NatWest Group had a return on equity of 14.01% and a net margin of 20.10%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that NatWest Group plc will post 2 EPS for the current year.

NatWest Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th were given a $0.3222 dividend. This is a negative change from NatWest Group’s previous dividend of $0.6210. This represents a yield of 337.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. NatWest Group’s payout ratio is presently 31.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NWG. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in NatWest Group by 28.9% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 566,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,443,000 after purchasing an additional 126,996 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NatWest Group in the second quarter worth $4,239,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 104.6% in the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 175,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,101,000 after buying an additional 89,928 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of NatWest Group by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,948,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,529,000 after buying an additional 1,048,804 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 20.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 388,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,793,000 after acquiring an additional 65,355 shares during the period. 1.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About NatWest Group

NatWest Group plc is a United Kingdom-based banking and financial services company. Through brands including NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland and Coutts, it provides banking and financial solutions to individuals, families, businesses and institutional clients.

The group’s activities include personal and premier banking, current and savings accounts, residential mortgages, consumer lending, credit cards, wealth management, business banking, commercial lending, transaction services and investment banking.