Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 2,993,751 shares, an increase of 19.6% from the March 15th total of 2,503,207 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 943,035 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days. Currently, 3.3% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on VOYA. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Voya Financial from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Voya Financial from $85.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Weiss Ratings cut Voya Financial from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Evercore lowered their price objective on Voya Financial from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Voya Financial from $92.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.89.

Voya Financial Stock Performance

NYSE:VOYA opened at $74.44 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $69.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.88 billion, a PE ratio of 11.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Voya Financial has a twelve month low of $54.48 and a twelve month high of $79.99.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The asset manager reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.11 by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.99 billion. Voya Financial had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 13.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Voya Financial will post 8.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 25th were given a $0.47 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Voya Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.89%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Voya Financial

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allworth Financial LP raised its position in shares of Voya Financial by 75.5% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 351 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Trail Ridge Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Voya Financial by 2.0% during the third quarter. Trail Ridge Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,317 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $622,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Voya Financial by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC now owns 32,532 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,423,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Voya Financial by 4.7% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,520 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $338,000 after acquiring an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Voya Financial by 1.5% during the third quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 14,677 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,098,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. 96.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc (NYSE: VOYA) is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya’s operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya’s core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.