ING Group (NYSE:ING) Share Price Passes Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING)’s stock price passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $25.15 and traded as high as $29.15. ING Group shares last traded at $29.02, with a volume of 1,785,593 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on ING. Citigroup upgraded ING Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of ING Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Cfra Research upgraded ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have issued a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ING Group presently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

ING Group Stock Up 0.9%

The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.15. The stock has a market cap of $84.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.64 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $6.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.35 billion. ING Group had a net margin of 26.94% and a return on equity of 11.57%. As a group, research analysts forecast that ING Group, N.V. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ING Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 8th will be issued a $0.2009 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 8th. This represents a yield of 71.0%. ING Group’s payout ratio is currently 31.08%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in ING Group by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,764,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $191,681,000 after buying an additional 593,424 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of ING Group by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,456,398 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $116,223,000 after acquiring an additional 73,959 shares in the last quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC increased its stake in ING Group by 1.0% in the third quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 2,795,403 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $72,904,000 after acquiring an additional 26,639 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. raised its position in ING Group by 249.9% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 2,047,717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,462,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in ING Group by 4.3% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,990,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,918,000 after purchasing an additional 82,340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 4.49% of the company’s stock.

About ING Group

ING Group N.V. is a Dutch multinational financial services company headquartered in Amsterdam. Formed through the consolidation of Dutch financial businesses, ING operates as a banking and financial services group that serves retail, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates and institutional clients. The company is organized under a two-tier governance model common in the Netherlands, with an Executive Board responsible for day-to-day management and a Supervisory Board providing oversight.

ING’s principal activities include retail and direct banking, commercial and wholesale banking, corporate lending, transaction services and cash management, and a range of investment and savings products.