Legal & General Group Plc Buys 655,542 Shares of Truist Financial Corporation $TFC

Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE:TFC) by 9.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,902,804 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 655,542 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Truist Financial were worth $361,316,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in TFC. Aprio Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Truist Financial by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,564 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $392,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Leisure Capital Management lifted its holdings in Truist Financial by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Leisure Capital Management now owns 19,985 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $914,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC boosted its position in Truist Financial by 4.1% during the third quarter. Smith Thornton Advisors LLC now owns 5,900 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $270,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the period. Gries Financial LLC boosted its position in Truist Financial by 4.4% during the third quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 5,507 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $252,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its holdings in Truist Financial by 6.8% during the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 3,730 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $170,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TFC. Barclays cut shares of Truist Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $47.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Truist Financial from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Truist Financial from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Argus boosted their target price on shares of Truist Financial from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Truist Financial from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.47.

Truist Financial Trading Down 2.1%

Shares of Truist Financial stock opened at $45.67 on Thursday. Truist Financial Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.56 and a 1 year high of $56.19. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $47.73. The company has a market cap of $57.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.99, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Truist Financial (NYSE:TFC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.09 by ($0.09). Truist Financial had a net margin of 17.09% and a return on equity of 9.03%. The company had revenue of $4.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.32 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.91 earnings per share. Truist Financial’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Truist Financial Corporation will post 4 EPS for the current year.

Truist Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 13th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 13th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. Truist Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.59%.

Truist Financial announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 16th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the insurance provider to purchase up to 15.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Truist Financial

In related news, CFO Michael Baron Maguire sold 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.13, for a total transaction of $651,690.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 74,323 shares in the company, valued at $3,725,811.99. The trade was a 14.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Cynthia B. Powell sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.49, for a total value of $183,715.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,010.83. This trade represents a 83.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Truist Financial

Truist Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company that provides a broad range of financial services through its primary subsidiary, Truist Bank, and other operating units. The company offers traditional retail banking products and services such as deposit accounts, consumer and residential mortgage lending, and credit and debit card services. Truist also serves commercial clients with middle-market and corporate lending, treasury and payment solutions, and specialty finance products.

Beyond core banking, Truist operates wealth management, asset management, insurance and capital markets businesses.