California State Teachers Retirement System Has $2.77 Billion Stock Position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 7,016.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,561,872 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,005,965 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.09% of Citizens Financial Group worth $2,772,100,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter valued at about $3,415,046,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,361,142 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $661,052,000 after buying an additional 32,264 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,217,975 shares of the bank’s stock worth $655,242,000 after buying an additional 298,779 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 32.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 8,000,750 shares of the bank’s stock worth $467,389,000 after buying an additional 1,953,372 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 56.9% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 7,722,559 shares of the bank’s stock worth $451,075,000 after buying an additional 2,799,050 shares during the last quarter. 94.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Citizens Financial Group

In other news, CEO Bruce Van Saun sold 129,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.07, for a total transaction of $9,323,623.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,140,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $82,214,789.41. This represents a 10.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.67% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $75.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Stephens upped their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.80.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:CFG opened at $69.67 on Friday. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 12 month low of $47.96 and a 12 month high of $75.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $71.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.95. The firm has a market cap of $29.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.11, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.66.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 16th. The bank reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.25 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 8.85%. The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.92 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 5.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 30th were issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 30th. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is 39.91%.

Citizens Financial Group Company Profile

Citizens Financial Group, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. Through its primary subsidiary, Citizens Bank, the company provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses, institutions and government entities.

Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, consumer and residential lending, credit cards, business loans, commercial real estate financing, treasury management, investment banking, capital markets services and wealth management.