Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Has $1.15 Million Holdings in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund grew its stake in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 80.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 48,783 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 21,689 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $1,147,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in RF. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 16.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 55,485,987 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,306,813,000 after purchasing an additional 7,791,399 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 27,786,933 shares of the bank’s stock worth $648,269,000 after purchasing an additional 816,226 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,625,214 shares of the bank’s stock worth $526,118,000 after purchasing an additional 315,605 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,738,619 shares of the bank’s stock worth $203,273,000 after purchasing an additional 112,885 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,226,353 shares of the bank’s stock worth $191,921,000 after purchasing an additional 61,426 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on RF shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 price target (up from $28.00) on shares of Regions Financial in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Barclays boosted their price target on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Argus upgraded Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Stephens upgraded Regions Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Regions Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $27.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.67.

Regions Financial Stock Up 1.3 %

NYSE RF opened at $24.63 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $22.38 billion, a PE ratio of 12.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.20. Regions Financial Co. has a one year low of $17.72 and a one year high of $27.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. Regions Financial had a return on equity of 12.83% and a net margin of 20.20%. Regions Financial’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.39 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.06%. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.55%.

About Regions Financial

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.