Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 115,663 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $2,318,000. Regions Financial accounts for 1.7% of Smith Thornton Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Regions Financial by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,704,755 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,281,118,000 after acquiring an additional 3,119,237 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Regions Financial by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 55,775,416 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,080,928,000 after buying an additional 1,951,026 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Regions Financial by 7.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,252,693 shares of the bank’s stock worth $285,562,000 after buying an additional 979,597 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Regions Financial by 1.4% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 7,707,381 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $162,163,000 after buying an additional 103,529 shares during the period. Finally, Cincinnati Insurance Co. acquired a new position in Regions Financial in the first quarter valued at $74,606,000. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Regions Financial Price Performance

RF stock opened at $22.90 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.17. Regions Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $13.72 and a 52-week high of $23.47. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The bank reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.03. Regions Financial had a return on equity of 12.64% and a net margin of 18.91%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. Regions Financial’s quarterly revenue was down 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a positive change from Regions Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Regions Financial from $22.00 to $21.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Wedbush upgraded Regions Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $28.00 in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Regions Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.06.

Regions Financial Company Profile

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.