Quarry LP Acquires 816 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Quarry LP increased its stake in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 157.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,335 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 816 shares during the quarter. Quarry LP’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $27,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Regions Financial by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,704,755 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,281,118,000 after purchasing an additional 3,119,237 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 281.7% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 79,593 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after acquiring an additional 58,739 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 1,676.8% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 93,711 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,816,000 after acquiring an additional 88,437 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 1,075.7% during the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 44,781 shares of the bank’s stock worth $942,000 after purchasing an additional 40,972 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in shares of Regions Financial by 30.9% in the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 415,105 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,734,000 after purchasing an additional 98,003 shares during the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Regions Financial from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Regions Financial from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.86.

Regions Financial Price Performance

RF opened at $22.81 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $22.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $20.69. Regions Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $13.72 and a 52-week high of $23.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.89 billion, a PE ratio of 12.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The bank reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.91% and a return on equity of 12.64%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.59 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

Regions Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is an increase from Regions Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.38%. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 54.35%.

About Regions Financial

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.