NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the eight ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on NWG shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of NatWest Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NatWest Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 9th. Berenberg Bank started coverage on shares of NatWest Group in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NatWest Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded NatWest Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd.

NatWest Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NWG opened at $18.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $72.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.99. NatWest Group has a fifty-two week low of $13.56 and a fifty-two week high of $19.42.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.09. NatWest Group had a net margin of 20.10% and a return on equity of 14.01%. The firm had revenue of $5.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.90 billion. On average, analysts expect that NatWest Group will post 2 earnings per share for the current year.

NatWest Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th were issued a $0.3222 dividend. This is a negative change from NatWest Group’s previous dividend of $0.6210. This represents a yield of 337.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 14th. NatWest Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NatWest Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in NatWest Group by 12.4% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 558,069 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,839,000 after buying an additional 61,748 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in NatWest Group by 19.2% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 55,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $977,000 after buying an additional 8,906 shares in the last quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 104.6% in the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 175,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,101,000 after buying an additional 89,928 shares during the period. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of NatWest Group by 22.6% during the 2nd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 47,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $837,000 after buying an additional 8,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of NatWest Group by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 61,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,087,000 after buying an additional 1,903 shares in the last quarter. 1.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NatWest Group Company Profile

NatWest Group plc is a United Kingdom-based banking and financial services company. Its principal brands include NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank, and it provides services to personal, business and institutional customers.

The group offers current and savings accounts, mortgages, personal loans, credit cards, insurance and investment-related services. For businesses and institutions, its activities include lending, cash management, payments, asset finance, foreign exchange, risk management and other corporate banking services.

NatWest Group primarily serves customers in the United Kingdom, with selected activities and relationships in international financial markets.