First Trust Advisors LP Raises Holdings in Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) by 280.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 526,864 shares of the asset manager’s stock after acquiring an additional 388,520 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.58% of Voya Financial worth $35,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in Voya Financial by 21.7% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 84,715 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $5,741,000 after purchasing an additional 15,091 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Voya Financial by 8.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 662,058 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $44,861,000 after purchasing an additional 51,376 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of Voya Financial by 13.5% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 37,836 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $2,564,000 after purchasing an additional 4,490 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 370,144 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $25,081,000 after buying an additional 6,127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 44.0% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 730 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Voya Financial

In other Voya Financial news, insider Trevor Ogle sold 3,994 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $359,460.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 2,887 shares in the company, valued at $259,830. This trade represents a 58.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on VOYA shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Voya Financial from $92.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Voya Financial from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Voya Financial from $88.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Atlantic Securities set a $79.00 price target on Voya Financial in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Voya Financial from $95.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Voya Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $100.15.

Voya Financial Trading Up 0.4%

NYSE VOYA opened at $98.96 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $90.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.66. Voya Financial, Inc. has a twelve month low of $64.50 and a twelve month high of $103.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a market capitalization of $8.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.95, a PEG ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 0.91.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The asset manager reported $2.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. Voya Financial had a return on equity of 13.84% and a net margin of 8.24%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.00 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 9.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc (NYSE: VOYA) is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya’s operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya’s core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.