Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY Trims Stock Holdings in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG)

Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY reduced its stake in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 11.7% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,016 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,328 shares during the period. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $410,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CFG. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $108,864,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 20.9% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,683,111 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $423,733,000 after buying an additional 1,672,204 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 32.2% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,186,364 shares of the bank’s stock worth $270,715,000 after purchasing an additional 1,507,536 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 11,167.0% during the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,347,537 shares of the bank’s stock worth $55,209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,335,577 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth about $51,486,000. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $57.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $57.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.53.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of CFG opened at $47.29 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $45.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market capitalization of $20.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.78. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.60 and a 52-week high of $49.98.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The bank reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.94% and a net margin of 13.26%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.82 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 31st. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.06%.

Citizens Financial Group announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Friday, June 13th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the bank to purchase up to 8.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Citizens Financial Group Profile

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.