Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG Shares Sold by Sound Income Strategies LLC

Sound Income Strategies LLC lowered its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 3.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 296,159 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 9,107 shares during the period. Sound Income Strategies LLC’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $17,938,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $355,909,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 56.9% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,722,559 shares of the bank’s stock worth $451,075,000 after acquiring an additional 2,799,050 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 89.4% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,731,592 shares of the bank’s stock worth $276,372,000 after acquiring an additional 2,232,806 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 136.4% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 3,513,388 shares of the bank’s stock worth $205,217,000 after acquiring an additional 2,027,255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 32.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,000,750 shares of the bank’s stock worth $467,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,953,372 shares during the period. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird raised Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, March 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $68.00 to $68.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Citizens Financial Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Citizens Financial Group

In other news, insider Michelle Moosally sold 6,050 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.16, for a total value of $376,068.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 22,565 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,640.40. This represents a 21.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.67% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of CFG opened at $70.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.70. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $45.90 and a 1-year high of $72.46. The stock has a market cap of $30.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.57 and a beta of 0.67.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 16th. The bank reported $1.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.03. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 8.31% and a net margin of 16.21%.The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 5.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 30th were issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 30th. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is 43.50%.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc (NYSE: CFG) is a bank holding company that provides a broad range of banking and financial services to individuals, small and middle-market businesses, corporations and institutional clients. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens conducts its banking operations principally through its primary banking subsidiary, Citizens Bank, and serves customers through a combination of branch locations, ATMs and digital channels. The company is publicly traded and operates under the regulatory framework applicable to U.S.