Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. Takes $313,000 Position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

Retirement Planning Co of New England Inc. acquired a new position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 7,646 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $313,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CFG. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $108,864,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 11,167.0% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,347,537 shares of the bank’s stock worth $55,209,000 after purchasing an additional 1,335,577 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group in the 4th quarter worth approximately $51,486,000. Junto Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group in the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,915,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 48.9% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,790,291 shares of the bank’s stock worth $114,318,000 after buying an additional 916,760 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE:CFG opened at $52.30 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $32.60 and a fifty-two week high of $52.53. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $47.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.90. The stock has a market cap of $22.56 billion, a PE ratio of 15.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 0.80.

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

Citizens Financial Group announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, June 13th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to repurchase up to 8.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 31st. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on CFG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $48.50 to $52.00 in a report on Friday, August 1st. Cowen began coverage on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.53.

Citizens Financial Group Profile

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.