Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA Stock: Vest Financial LLC Increases Holdings

Vest Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) by 41.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 73,163 shares of the asset manager’s stock after buying an additional 21,310 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Voya Financial were worth $6,912,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 21.6% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,400 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. USA Financial Formulas bought a new position in Voya Financial during the third quarter worth $136,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its position in shares of Voya Financial by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 2,731 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $261,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Voya Financial by 141.8% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 303,681 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $28,692,000 after acquiring an additional 178,070 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Management Inc. acquired a new position in Voya Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $710,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on VOYA shares. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $111.00 target price on shares of Voya Financial in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Voya Financial from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Atlantic Securities set a $79.00 price target on Voya Financial in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Voya Financial from $125.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $109.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $103.69.

Voya Financial Price Performance

NYSE VOYA opened at $98.47 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.92 billion, a PE ratio of 16.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.90. Voya Financial, Inc. has a 12-month low of $64.50 and a 12-month high of $105.64. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $98.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $91.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The asset manager reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.98 by ($0.47). The business had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Voya Financial had a return on equity of 12.31% and a net margin of 7.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.66 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 9.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 26th were issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 26th. Voya Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.70%.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc is a U.S.-based financial services company that helps individuals, employers and institutions plan for retirement, manage investments and address employee benefit needs. Its businesses are organized primarily around Retirement, Employee Benefits and Investment Management.

Voya’s retirement business provides workplace retirement plans, including defined contribution and defined benefit solutions, as well as individual retirement products and advisory services. Its employee benefits operations offer products such as health, life, disability and supplemental insurance, along with benefits administration and related services for employers and their workers.

Through its investment management business, Voya provides institutional and individual investors with asset-management and advisory capabilities across a range of investment strategies.