Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Buys New Stake in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. bought a new position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 107,308 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $6,842,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter worth about $223,386,000. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 12.4% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 145,378 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,187,000 after acquiring an additional 16,000 shares during the last quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter valued at about $95,642,000. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 145.6% during the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 773,677 shares of the bank’s stock worth $49,330,000 after purchasing an additional 458,698 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sterling Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,164,000. 94.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $84.00 to $78.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $79.00 to $74.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $77.00 to $76.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 19th. Stephens decreased their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $70.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research report on Friday, October 30th. Seventeen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $76.79.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Citizens Financial Group stock opened at $64.91 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.74. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $49.00 and a 52-week high of $75.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.65.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 16th. The bank reported $1.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.32 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.34 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 18.07% and a return on equity of 9.52%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 5.30 EPS for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 30th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. This is an increase from Citizens Financial Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 30th. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is presently 41.85%.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. Through Citizens Bank and related businesses, it provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses and institutions. Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, mortgages, personal and business loans, credit cards, wealth management, and commercial lending and cash-management services. The company also provides capital markets and other financial services to corporate clients.