Avanza Fonder AB Buys Shares of 36,476 Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG)

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 36,476 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,596,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CFG. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 28,726 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,257,000 after buying an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank raised its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 1.9% in the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 13,177 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $541,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 17.4% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,685 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. Accurate Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Accurate Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,455 shares of the bank’s stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY raised its position in Citizens Financial Group by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cobblestone Capital Advisors LLC NY now owns 11,395 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $468,000 after purchasing an additional 280 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CFG. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $47.00 to $46.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Raymond James raised Citizens Financial Group from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Citizens Financial Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.78.

Citizens Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CFG opened at $47.52 on Friday. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a one year low of $30.24 and a one year high of $49.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.71, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1,962,330 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 5.73% and a net margin of 10.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.2 EPS for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.54%. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is currently 66.14%.

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.