Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG Position Boosted by DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 0.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 275,006 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 481 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $12,237,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,380,605 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $425,293,000 after purchasing an additional 697,494 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,366,754 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $294,007,000 after purchasing an additional 1,180,390 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 6,801,856 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $278,672,000 after purchasing an additional 554,618 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $287,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,098,684 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,730,786 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $193,782,000 after purchasing an additional 41,704 shares during the period. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CFG shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $48.50 to $52.00 in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Raymond James Financial set a $62.00 price target on Citizens Financial Group and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on Citizens Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $61.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $57.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Citizens Financial Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.57.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

CFG opened at $51.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.00 billion, a PE ratio of 14.29, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.52. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.60 and a fifty-two week high of $55.24.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.03 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.10 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 7.48% and a net margin of 14.17%.The company’s revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.79 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 29th will be given a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. This is a boost from Citizens Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 29th. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is 47.06%.

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.