Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Sells 171,438 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,651,140 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 171,438 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned 0.29% of Regions Financial worth $51,379,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in RF. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 2.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 114,585,518 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,970,871,000 after acquiring an additional 2,982,310 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Regions Financial by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 53,824,390 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $925,780,000 after purchasing an additional 4,160,768 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Regions Financial by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,312,924 shares of the bank’s stock worth $943,529,000 after purchasing an additional 189,323 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Regions Financial by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,189,021 shares of the bank’s stock worth $435,275,000 after buying an additional 2,802,291 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Regions Financial by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,169,876 shares of the bank’s stock worth $346,922,000 after buying an additional 618,384 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Regions Financial Trading Up 0.7 %

Regions Financial stock opened at $19.00 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.09, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Regions Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $13.72 and a 52 week high of $21.08.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 19th. The bank reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.09). Regions Financial had a return on equity of 14.50% and a net margin of 22.66%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.67 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Regions Financial Co. will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Regions Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.05%. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.93%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $21.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Regions Financial from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $15.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Regions Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.39.

Regions Financial Profile

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.