Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.67.

CFG has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Wedbush reduced their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $38.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $36.50 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 6,327 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.70, for a total transaction of $213,219.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,558 shares in the company, valued at $1,265,704.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Financial Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CFG. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 14.2% in the third quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 317,200 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,501,000 after acquiring an additional 39,335 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 36.7% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 5,782 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $155,000 after acquiring an additional 1,551 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 219.4% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 25,680 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $688,000 after acquiring an additional 17,640 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 10.4% in the third quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 46,767 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,253,000 after acquiring an additional 4,413 shares during the period. Finally, Alps Advisors Inc. grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 32.5% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 12,212 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 2,992 shares during the period. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE CFG opened at $36.38 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $16.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.18, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.82. Citizens Financial Group has a 52 week low of $22.77 and a 52 week high of $37.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 11.52% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.00 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 30th. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 60.87%.

Citizens Financial Group Company 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.