Traub Capital Management LLC Buys New Holdings in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

Traub Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,500 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $157,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 11,167.0% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,347,537 shares of the bank’s stock worth $55,209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,335,577 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised 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 valued at $294,007,000 after buying an additional 1,180,390 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 20.7% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,399,905 shares of the bank’s stock worth $287,932,000 after buying an additional 1,098,684 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB boosted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 291.5% during the 2nd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,352,458 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,522,000 after acquiring an additional 1,006,999 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,915,000. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CFG. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Citizens Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $61.00 price target for the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $56.57.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Up 1.5%

CFG stock opened at $51.16 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $21.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $51.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.66. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $32.60 and a 12 month high of $55.24.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 14.17% and a return on equity of 7.48%. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. Citizens Financial Group’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 29th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. This is a boost from Citizens Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.54%.

Citizens Financial Group 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.