Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $935,000 Investment in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 28,200 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $935,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 28.3% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 17,272 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $463,000 after purchasing an additional 3,815 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 336.3% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,693 shares of the bank’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 1,305 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 121.1% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 61,885 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,659,000 after acquiring an additional 33,897 shares during the period. Czech National Bank raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 44.1% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 82,548 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,212,000 after acquiring an additional 25,253 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 3.9% during the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 207,507 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,561,000 after acquiring an additional 7,838 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Citizens Financial Group

In related news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 6,327 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.70, for a total transaction of $213,219.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,265,704.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CFG has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of Citizens Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Citizens Financial Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.13.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Down 1.5 %

Citizens Financial Group stock opened at $34.99 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.04 billion, a PE ratio of 12.68 and a beta of 1.38. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.77 and a 12-month high of $36.38.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.10). Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 11.52% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The company had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 60.87%.

Citizens Financial Group Company 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.