Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) Earns Hold Rating from Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG – Get Rating) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the bank’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on CFG. Wedbush cut shares of Citizens Financial Group from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and set a $45.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Monday, December 5th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, December 1st. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, DA Davidson initiated coverage on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, December 21st. They set a buy rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $48.17.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

CFG opened at $30.86 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.56, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a fifty day moving average of $40.82 and a 200 day moving average of $39.25. Citizens Financial Group has a fifty-two week low of $29.72 and a fifty-two week high of $50.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 17th. The bank reported $1.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by ($0.05). Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 22.86% and a return on equity of 11.24%. The business had revenue of $2.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.22 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group will post 5.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Friday, February 17th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.15 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the bank to reacquire up to 5.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 31st were given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, January 30th. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.44%. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 41.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Citizens Financial Group

In other Citizens Financial Group news, Director Kevin Cummings sold 81,151 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.40, for a total value of $3,603,104.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 455,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,237,031.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CFG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 0.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,764,211 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,984,777,000 after purchasing an additional 498,557 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 1.7% during the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 47,431,255 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,629,737,000 after purchasing an additional 787,199 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 5.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 26,089,425 shares of the bank’s stock worth $896,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,246,261 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 76.0% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,002,482 shares of the bank’s stock worth $861,383,000 after purchasing an additional 8,203,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 18,297,989 shares of the bank’s stock worth $720,392,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,751 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.96% of the company’s stock.

About Citizens Financial Group

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Citizens Financial Group, Inc engages in the provision of commercial banking services. It operates through the Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking segments. The Consumer Banking segment includes deposit products, mortgage and home equity lending, student loans, auto financing, credit cards, business loans, and wealth management and investment services.