Korea Investment CORP Sells 144,889 Shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

Korea Investment CORP lowered its stake in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 49.1% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 150,010 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 144,889 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $6,713,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 0.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,548,977 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,306,817,000 after buying an additional 209,467 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,380,605 shares of the bank’s stock worth $425,293,000 after acquiring an additional 697,494 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 19.1% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,366,754 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $294,007,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180,390 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 8.9% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 6,801,856 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $278,672,000 after acquiring an additional 554,618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 14.5% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,562,791 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $293,685,000 after acquiring an additional 833,399 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $57.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Monday. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $56.57.

Citizens Financial Group Price Performance

CFG opened at $54.56 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The company has a market cap of $23.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.73. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $32.60 and a 12-month high of $55.24.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 14.17% and a return on equity of 7.48%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 29th were paid a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 29th. This is an increase from Citizens Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.54%.

About Citizens Financial Group

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.