KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Buys 7,500 Shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 148,060 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,500 shares during the quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $6,626,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. raised its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 108,219 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,843,000 after purchasing an additional 7,085 shares during the last quarter. Boyar Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Citizens Financial Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $231,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 4.1% during the second quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 50,385 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,255,000 after buying an additional 1,971 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 2.9% during the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 26,852 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,202,000 after buying an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Woodward Diversified Capital LLC bought a new position in Citizens Financial Group during the second quarter worth $238,000. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Down 5.0%

NYSE CFG opened at $49.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 0.79. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $32.60 and a 52 week high of $55.24. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $51.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $44.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The bank reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 13.26% and a return on equity of 6.94%. Citizens Financial Group’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.82 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 51.06%.

Citizens Financial Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Friday, June 13th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the bank to purchase up to 8.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CFG. Barclays lifted their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Wednesday. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $52.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Citizens Financial Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $57.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.86.

About Citizens Financial Group

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.