Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Decreases Position in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky cut its holdings in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 73,649 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 2,119 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $1,476,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in RF. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,704,755 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,281,118,000 after purchasing an additional 3,119,237 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Regions Financial by 281.7% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 79,593 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,675,000 after acquiring an additional 58,739 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its holdings in Regions Financial by 1,676.8% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 93,711 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after purchasing an additional 88,437 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its position in shares of Regions Financial by 1,075.7% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 44,781 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $942,000 after buying an additional 40,972 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its position in Regions Financial by 30.9% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 415,105 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,734,000 after acquiring an additional 98,003 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RF has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wedbush upgraded Regions Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $23.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America upped their target price on Regions Financial from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. StockNews.com raised Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.36.

Regions Financial Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of RF stock opened at $22.84 on Friday. Regions Financial Co. has a 1-year low of $13.72 and a 1-year high of $23.47. The firm has a market cap of $20.92 billion, a PE ratio of 12.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a 50-day moving average of $22.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83.

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

Regions Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.38%. This is an increase from Regions Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Regions Financial’s payout ratio is presently 54.35%.

Regions Financial 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.