NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on NWG. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded NatWest Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered NatWest Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered NatWest Group from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered NatWest Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NatWest Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

NatWest Group Price Performance

NYSE:NWG opened at $14.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $15.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.97, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.94. NatWest Group has a 12-month low of $12.91 and a 12-month high of $19.35.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $5.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.80 billion. NatWest Group had a return on equity of 13.30% and a net margin of 19.11%. On average, analysts anticipate that NatWest Group will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.

NatWest Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th were paid a dividend of $0.621 per share. This represents a yield of 895.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 20th. NatWest Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.36%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NatWest Group

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in NatWest Group by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 40,912,201 shares of the company’s stock worth $715,964,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,879 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in NatWest Group by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,531,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $188,764,000 after acquiring an additional 156,832 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in NatWest Group by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 13,399,866 shares of the company’s stock worth $234,498,000 after acquiring an additional 494,472 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in NatWest Group by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,061,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $193,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,009,044 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in NatWest Group by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,858,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $120,024,000 after acquiring an additional 18,334 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 1.27% of the company’s stock.

NatWest Group Company Profile

NatWest Group plc is a major UK-based banking and financial services group headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company traces its roots to the Royal Bank of Scotland, founded in 1727, and adopted the NatWest Group name in 2020 as part of a strategic refocus on its NatWest brand. NatWest Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and also has American depositary shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NWG.

The group provides a broad range of banking services across retail, private, commercial, corporate and institutional segments.