Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Acquires 37,760 Shares of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) by 7.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 562,355 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,760 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned 0.57% of Voya Financial worth $40,011,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Voya Financial by 25.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 19,872 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,414,000 after purchasing an additional 4,064 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Voya Financial by 36.8% in the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 4,308 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,159 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd increased its holdings in Voya Financial by 100.2% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 12,075 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $859,000 after buying an additional 6,043 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its holdings in Voya Financial by 5.1% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 12,874 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $916,000 after buying an additional 621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its holdings in Voya Financial by 51.7% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,163 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $296,000 after buying an additional 1,419 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Voya Financial Trading Down 1.6 %

VOYA stock opened at $76.62 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.30 and a current ratio of 0.30. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $70.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $71.34. Voya Financial, Inc. has a 52 week low of $63.02 and a 52 week high of $78.12. The company has a market capitalization of $7.72 billion, a PE ratio of 10.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.03.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The asset manager reported $2.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.14 by $0.13. Voya Financial had a net margin of 10.87% and a return on equity of 16.11%. The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.31 earnings per share. Voya Financial’s revenue was up 8.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Voya Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 27th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a boost from Voya Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.35%. Voya Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VOYA. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $76.00 to $75.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 19th. Barclays began coverage on shares of Voya Financial in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $84.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $88.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Voya Financial from $86.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Voya Financial from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $83.64.

Voya Financial Profile

Voya Financial, Inc engages in the provision of workplace benefits and savings products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Wealth Solutions, Health Solutions, and Investment Management. The Wealth Solutions segment offers full-service retirement products; recordkeeping services; stable value and fixed general account investment products; non-qualified plan administration services; and tools, guidance, and services to promote the financial well-being and retirement security of employees.