Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Acquires 14,499 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 70.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,111 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,499 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $704,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in RF. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Regions Financial during the fourth quarter worth $92,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in Regions Financial during the fourth quarter worth $2,047,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Regions Financial during the fourth quarter worth $210,379,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Regions Financial by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 102,395 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC raised its position in Regions Financial by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 45,391 shares of the bank’s stock worth $879,000 after acquiring an additional 5,579 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RF has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Regions Financial from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Regions Financial from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.51.

Regions Financial Trading Up 1.0 %

RF stock opened at $22.53 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.35. Regions Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $13.72 and a 52 week high of $23.47. The company has a market capitalization of $20.63 billion, a PE ratio of 12.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.17.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.91% and a return on equity of 12.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Regions Financial Co. will post 2 earnings per share for the current year.

Regions Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.44%. This is an increase from Regions Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.35%.

About Regions Financial

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.