Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $86.5556.

VOYA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays upgraded Voya Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $83.00 to $93.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Voya Financial from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Voya Financial from $87.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Voya Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of Voya Financial in a report on Wednesday.

Voya Financial Stock Up 5.0%

NYSE:VOYA opened at $75.87 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $74.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.93. Voya Financial has a 52-week low of $52.43 and a 52-week high of $79.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.89.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The asset manager reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.11 by ($0.17). The firm had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.99 billion. Voya Financial had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 13.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.40 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Voya Financial will post 8.39 EPS for the current year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Voya Financial’s payout ratio is 29.89%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Voya Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VOYA. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 70.4% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,373,520 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $239,175,000 after acquiring an additional 1,394,321 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Voya Financial during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $97,876,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew 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 valued at $148,062,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,935 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Voya Financial by 17.7% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,516,879 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $487,463,000 after purchasing an additional 977,870 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Voya Financial by 135.7% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,084,747 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $81,139,000 after purchasing an additional 624,436 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Voya Financial Company Profile

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.