ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) have received a consensus rating of “Buy” from the nine brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ING. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of ING Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Citigroup raised ING Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ING Group

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ING. MidFirst Bank bought a new position in shares of ING Group during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. SG Trading Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in ING Group in the fourth quarter valued at $405,000. Compound Planning Inc. raised its position in ING Group by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 58,377 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,635,000 after purchasing an additional 5,815 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in ING Group by 21.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 54,220 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,518,000 after buying an additional 9,542 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its position in shares of ING Group by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 110,516 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,094,000 after buying an additional 10,335 shares during the last quarter. 4.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

ING Group Price Performance

Shares of ING stock opened at $28.75 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.58. The company has a market cap of $83.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99. ING Group has a twelve month low of $16.47 and a twelve month high of $31.17.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $4.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.67 billion. ING Group had a return on equity of 12.26% and a net margin of 27.50%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that ING Group will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.8796 dividend. This represents a yield of 589.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 17th. ING Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.87%.

About ING Group

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.