NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NatWest Group in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of NatWest Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NatWest Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of NatWest Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Berenberg Bank initiated coverage on shares of NatWest Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NatWest Group

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 40,912,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $715,964,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,879 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 13,399,866 shares of the company’s stock valued at $234,498,000 after purchasing an additional 494,472 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,061,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,009,044 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in NatWest Group by 17.8% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 6,948,264 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,529,000 after purchasing an additional 1,048,804 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NatWest Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,858,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $120,024,000 after purchasing an additional 18,334 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 1.27% of the company’s stock.

NatWest Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NWG opened at $19.20 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.60. NatWest Group has a 1-year low of $13.56 and a 1-year high of $19.42. The firm has a market cap of $76.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $5.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. NatWest Group had a return on equity of 14.01% and a net margin of 20.10%. Analysts anticipate that NatWest Group will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

NatWest Group Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a $0.3222 dividend. This represents a yield of 340.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. NatWest Group’s payout ratio is currently 30.85%.

About NatWest Group

NatWest Group plc is a major UK-based banking and financial services group headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company traces its roots to the Royal Bank of Scotland, founded in 1727, and adopted the NatWest Group name in 2020 as part of a strategic refocus on its NatWest brand. NatWest Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and also has American depositary shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NWG.

The group provides a broad range of banking services across retail, private, commercial, corporate and institutional segments.