Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) Stock Lifted to “Strong-Buy” by Raymond James Financial

Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Tuesday,Zacks reports.

CFG has been the subject of a number of other reports. Argus set a $80.00 price objective on Citizens Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $90.00 to $89.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 28th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $77.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.53.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

NYSE CFG opened at $63.02 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.67, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Citizens Financial Group has a twelve month low of $47.96 and a twelve month high of $75.33. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.85.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The bank reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.05. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 17.18%.The firm had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.92 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group will post 5.29 EPS for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 30th were issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 30th. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 39.91%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Citizens Financial Group news, CEO Bruce Van Saun sold 129,369 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.07, for a total value of $9,323,623.83. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,140,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,214,789.41. The trade was a 10.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.67% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Financial Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Citizens Financial Group during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,415,046,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter worth approximately $223,386,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $207,234,000. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $188,380,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group during the second quarter valued at approximately $175,948,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. Its principal subsidiary, Citizens Bank, provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and institutions through branches, digital channels and other delivery platforms.

The company’s consumer banking activities include checking and savings accounts, residential mortgages, home equity lending, credit cards, personal loans and other lending products. Through its commercial banking operations, Citizens provides business loans, commercial real estate financing, treasury management, capital markets services and other solutions for companies and institutional clients.