Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 30,310,000 shares, a decline of 14.1% from the March 31st total of 35,300,000 shares. Approximately 3.3% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 8,680,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on RF. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Regions Financial from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Argus cut Regions Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Regions Financial from $22.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Regions Financial from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $20.34.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director William C. Rhodes III purchased 50,000 shares of Regions Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $19.37 per share, with a total value of $968,500.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 50,000 shares in the company, valued at $968,500. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.33% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Regions Financial

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial in the 4th quarter worth $210,379,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Regions Financial by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 53,824,390 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $925,780,000 after buying an additional 4,160,768 shares in the last quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its position in Regions Financial by 162.1% during the 3rd quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. now owns 5,904,595 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $101,559,000 after buying an additional 3,651,390 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Regions Financial by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,704,755 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,281,118,000 after buying an additional 3,119,237 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Regions Financial during the 1st quarter valued at about $33,829,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Regions Financial Price Performance

Shares of Regions Financial stock opened at $19.62 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $18.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $19.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.12. Regions Financial has a one year low of $13.72 and a one year high of $21.08.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 19th. The bank reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.08). Regions Financial had a net margin of 19.75% and a return on equity of 13.28%. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.75 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. Regions Financial’s revenue was down 10.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Regions Financial will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

Regions Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Regions Financial’s payout ratio is currently 52.17%.

Regions Financial Company Profile

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.