Barclays Upgrades Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) to “Overweight”

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) was upgraded by analysts at Barclays from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $77.00 price target on the bank’s stock, up from their prior price target of $56.00. Barclays‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 24.02% from the company’s current price.

CFG has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Raymond James Financial set a $62.00 price objective on Citizens Financial Group and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup raised shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.14.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CFG opened at $62.09 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $55.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $51.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $26.67 billion, a PE ratio of 17.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.72. Citizens Financial Group has a 1 year low of $32.60 and a 1 year high of $62.15.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The bank reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by $0.02. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 14.17% and a return on equity of 7.48%. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. Citizens Financial Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Financial Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CFG. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 35,352 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,582,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 5.3% during the second quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 856,204 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $38,315,000 after buying an additional 42,971 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 20.7% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,399,905 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $287,932,000 after acquiring an additional 1,098,684 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN purchased a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the 3rd quarter worth $1,848,000. Finally, Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its position in Citizens Financial Group by 78.7% during the 2nd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 19,735 shares of the bank’s stock worth $883,000 after acquiring an additional 8,693 shares during the period. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Citizens Financial Group Company Profile

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.