Marshall Wace LLP Buys 677,222 Shares of NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG)

Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) by 499.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 812,933 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 677,222 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP’s holdings in NatWest Group were worth $8,268,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NatWest Group by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 11,118,183 shares of the company’s stock valued at $113,072,000 after purchasing an additional 408,239 shares in the last quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NatWest Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 4,135,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,057,000 after buying an additional 10,755 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NatWest Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,339,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,901,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,342,000 after acquiring an additional 28,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of NatWest Group by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 1,560,029 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,865,000 after acquiring an additional 70,150 shares during the last quarter. 1.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NWG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas downgraded NatWest Group from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Peel Hunt downgraded shares of NatWest Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

NatWest Group Stock Performance

Shares of NWG opened at $12.57 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market cap of $50.62 billion, a PE ratio of 9.24, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.93. NatWest Group plc has a 1 year low of $7.16 and a 1 year high of $12.71. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $11.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.71.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $4.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.75 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NatWest Group plc will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

NatWest Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.3899 dividend. This is a positive change from NatWest Group’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.36. This represents a dividend yield of 3.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. NatWest Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.88%.

NatWest Group Profile

NatWest Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services to personal, commercial, corporate, and institutional customers in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates through Retail Banking, Private Banking, and Commercial & Institutional segments.