NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) Cut to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on NWG. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of NatWest Group in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of NatWest Group in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of NatWest Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NatWest Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

NatWest Group Stock Performance

Shares of NWG opened at $16.94 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $67.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.46, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average is $15.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.21. NatWest Group has a 1 year low of $12.05 and a 1 year high of $19.35.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. NatWest Group had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 13.05%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NatWest Group will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current year.

NatWest Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be issued a $0.621 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 20th. This represents a yield of 895.0%. NatWest Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.60%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NatWest Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NWG. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in NatWest Group by 136.0% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 3,273,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,316,000 after acquiring an additional 1,886,141 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in NatWest Group by 4.5% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 39,234,322 shares of the company’s stock valued at $555,166,000 after acquiring an additional 1,702,930 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC acquired a new stake in NatWest Group in the third quarter valued at $16,650,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in NatWest Group by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,061,146 shares of the company’s stock valued at $193,570,000 after acquiring an additional 1,009,044 shares during the period. Finally, Citadel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NatWest Group by 150.7% in the third quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 1,612,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,822,000 after acquiring an additional 969,546 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.27% of the company’s stock.

NatWest Group Company Profile

NatWest Group plc is a major UK-based banking and financial services group headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company traces its roots to the Royal Bank of Scotland, founded in 1727, and adopted the NatWest Group name in 2020 as part of a strategic refocus on its NatWest brand. NatWest Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and also has American depositary shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NWG.

The group provides a broad range of banking services across retail, private, commercial, corporate and institutional segments.