ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) Given Consensus Rating of “Buy” by Brokerages

ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the six ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ING shares. Cfra Research upgraded ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of ING Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup raised ING Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 21st.

ING Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ING opened at $28.79 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.79. ING Group has a 12 month low of $15.48 and a 12 month high of $28.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.97, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $6.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.35 billion. ING Group had a net margin of 26.94% and a return on equity of 11.57%. Analysts expect that ING Group will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of ING Group

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in ING Group by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 27,093 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $531,000 after buying an additional 2,419 shares in the last quarter. MAI Capital Management lifted its position in shares of ING Group by 23.1% in the first quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 4,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,000 after acquiring an additional 785 shares in the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ING Group by 46.7% in the first quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,077 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $374,000 after acquiring an additional 6,075 shares in the last quarter. Amundi purchased a new stake in shares of ING Group during the first quarter worth approximately $760,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of ING Group by 27.0% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 87,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 18,562 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.