ING Group (NYSE:ING) Sets New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating. The company traded as high as $36.30 and last traded at $36.2010, with a volume of 184896 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $35.25.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on ING. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of ING Group from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Zacks Research upgraded ING Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ING Group

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in ING Group by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,764,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $191,681,000 after purchasing an additional 593,424 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in ING Group by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,804,829 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $218,535,000 after purchasing an additional 191,101 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of ING Group by 1.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,456,398 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $116,223,000 after purchasing an additional 73,959 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its stake in shares of ING Group by 61.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,032,177 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of ING Group by 9.5% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 1,803,670 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,986,000 after buying an additional 156,461 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 4.49% of the company’s stock.

ING Group Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $103.86 billion, a PE ratio of 13.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $33.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.43.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.04. ING Group had a return on equity of 12.59% and a net margin of 28.15%.The firm had revenue of $4.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.99 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that ING Group, N.V. will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ING Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th were paid a $0.458 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. This represents a dividend yield of 260.0%. ING Group’s dividend payout ratio is 29.10%.

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.