California Public Employees Retirement System Acquires 8,722 Shares of Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA

California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) by 4.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 204,573 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 8,722 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.22% of Voya Financial worth $13,976,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VOYA. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,492,908 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $334,677,000 after acquiring an additional 230,877 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in Voya Financial by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 3,673,118 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $250,947,000 after purchasing an additional 46,906 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its holdings in Voya Financial by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,557,281 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $265,363,000 after purchasing an additional 61,962 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Voya Financial by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,418,536 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $242,716,000 after purchasing an additional 219,130 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Voya Financial by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,706,354 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $201,596,000 after purchasing an additional 44,053 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Trevor Ogle sold 3,994 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $359,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 2,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $259,830. This represents a 58.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VOYA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $88.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Voya Financial from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Voya Financial from $95.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Barclays upped their target price on Voya Financial from $98.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Voya Financial from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $100.15.

Voya Financial Stock Up 1.9%

Voya Financial stock opened at $98.60 on Friday. Voya Financial, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $64.50 and a fifty-two week high of $103.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.27. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $90.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.50. The stock has a market cap of $8.94 billion, a PE ratio of 14.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.91.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. Voya Financial had a net margin of 8.24% and a return on equity of 13.84%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.00 EPS. Research analysts predict that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 26th were paid a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 26th. Voya Financial’s payout ratio is presently 28.40%.

Voya Financial Company Profile

Voya Financial, Inc (NYSE: VOYA) is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya’s operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya’s core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.