American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 7,534 Shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 223,731 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 7,534 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.05% of Citizens Financial Group worth $9,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CFG. State Street Corp grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 6.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,826,368 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,060,689,000 after acquiring an additional 1,615,144 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 207.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,272,043 shares of the bank’s stock worth $339,733,000 after purchasing an additional 5,579,313 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,974,434 shares of the bank’s stock worth $217,781,000 after purchasing an additional 805,758 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,543,207 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $155,051,000 after purchasing an additional 839,041 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $56,483,000. 94.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CFG shares. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $54.00 to $51.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Compass Point raised their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $45.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.67.

Citizens Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CFG opened at $41.66 on Thursday. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $32.06 and a twelve month high of $49.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $44.26 and its 200-day moving average is $44.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.81.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 12.21% and a return on equity of 6.75%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.03%. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.45%.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc operates as the bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking.