Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) Upgraded to Overweight at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $93.00 price target on the asset manager’s stock, up from their prior price target of $83.00.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on VOYA. Wall Street Zen raised Voya Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Voya Financial from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $93.00 price objective on shares of Voya Financial in a report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Voya Financial in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on Voya Financial from $87.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Voya Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.67.

Voya Financial Stock Up 2.0%

Voya Financial stock opened at $78.87 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. Voya Financial has a twelve month low of $52.43 and a twelve month high of $79.99. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $72.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.29.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The asset manager reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. Voya Financial had a return on equity of 13.89% and a net margin of 7.55%.The firm had revenue of $1.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.97 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. Voya Financial’s revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Voya Financial will post 8.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 26th were given a $0.47 dividend. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Voya Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 26th. Voya Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.30%.

Institutional Trading of Voya Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VOYA. Jane Street Group LLC increased its stake in Voya Financial by 247.1% in the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 190,035 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,877,000 after buying an additional 135,292 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 10.1% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 230,930 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $16,396,000 after acquiring an additional 21,186 shares in the last quarter. Davis Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of Voya Financial during the third quarter worth about $1,484,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Voya Financial by 119.6% during the second quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,085,387 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $148,062,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,935 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Voya Financial in the third quarter valued at about $1,310,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc (NYSE: VOYA) is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya’s operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya’s core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.