Portfolio Design Labs LLC Acquires Shares of 8,779 Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

Portfolio Design Labs LLC acquired a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 8,779 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $615,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,415,046,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $355,909,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 56.9% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,722,559 shares of the bank’s stock worth $451,075,000 after acquiring an additional 2,799,050 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $175,948,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $174,108,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CFG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $70.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Monday, July 6th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.25.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of CFG stock opened at $69.77 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.13, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.67. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a one year low of $47.96 and a one year high of $75.33. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 16th. The bank reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.05. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 17.18%.The firm had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share. Citizens Financial Group’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 5.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 30th were given a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 30th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Citizens Financial Group

In other news, CEO Saun Bruce Van sold 129,369 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.07, for a total value of $9,323,623.83. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,140,763 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,214,789.41. The trade was a 10.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.67% of the company’s stock.

Citizens Financial Group Profile

Citizens Financial Group, Inc (NYSE: CFG) is a bank holding company that provides a broad range of banking and financial services to individuals, small and middle-market businesses, corporations and institutional clients. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens conducts its banking operations principally through its primary banking subsidiary, Citizens Bank, and serves customers through a combination of branch locations, ATMs and digital channels. The company is publicly traded and operates under the regulatory framework applicable to U.S.