ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on ING. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of ING Group in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of ING Group from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of ING Group in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ING Group

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ING. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in ING Group by 249.9% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 2,047,717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $53,404,000 after buying an additional 1,462,527 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its position in ING Group by 61.9% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,700,573 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,616,000 after buying an additional 1,032,177 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in ING Group by 4,512.2% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 911,413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,520,000 after buying an additional 891,652 shares during the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA increased its position in ING Group by 280.3% in the third quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA now owns 900,936 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,496,000 after buying an additional 664,063 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in ING Group by 7.3% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,764,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $191,681,000 after buying an additional 593,424 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 4.49% of the company’s stock.

ING Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ING opened at $29.38 on Friday. ING Group has a fifty-two week low of $18.36 and a fifty-two week high of $31.17. The stock has a market cap of $85.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.29, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.01.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.06. ING Group had a net margin of 27.50% and a return on equity of 12.05%. The business had revenue of $6.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.67 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that ING Group will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ING Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 17th will be given a dividend of $0.8796 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 17th. This represents a dividend yield of 589.0%. ING Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.10%.

ING Group Company Profile

ING Group N.V. is a Dutch multinational financial services company headquartered in Amsterdam. Formed through the consolidation of Dutch financial businesses, ING operates as a banking and financial services group that serves retail, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates and institutional clients. The company is organized under a two-tier governance model common in the Netherlands, with an Executive Board responsible for day-to-day management and a Supervisory Board providing oversight.

ING’s principal activities include retail and direct banking, commercial and wholesale banking, corporate lending, transaction services and cash management, and a range of investment and savings products.