American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 312,720 Shares of ING Group, N.V. $ING

American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) by 22.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,721,021 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 312,720 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.05% of ING Group worth $44,884,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in shares of ING Group by 249.9% in the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 2,047,717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,404,000 after acquiring an additional 1,462,527 shares in the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA lifted its holdings in ING Group by 280.3% during the third quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA now owns 900,936 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,496,000 after acquiring an additional 664,063 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in ING Group by 7.3% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,764,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $191,681,000 after purchasing an additional 593,424 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in ING Group by 25.2% in the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,314,705 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,753,000 after purchasing an additional 264,858 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in ING Group by 64.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 467,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,233,000 after purchasing an additional 183,891 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 4.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ING has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Citigroup raised shares of ING Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of ING Group in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

ING Group Price Performance

NYSE ING opened at $26.45 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $76.98 billion, a PE ratio of 11.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.78. ING Group, N.V. has a 52 week low of $16.47 and a 52 week high of $31.17. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.66.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.06. ING Group had a net margin of 27.50% and a return on equity of 12.05%. The firm had revenue of $4.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.67 billion. Research analysts predict that ING Group, N.V. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

ING Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 17th will be paid a $0.8796 dividend. This represents a yield of 589.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 17th. ING Group’s payout ratio is currently 28.87%.

ING Group Company Profile

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.