Share Buyback Program Initiated by Regions Financial (NYSE:RF)

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, December 10th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $3.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to repurchase up to 12.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Regions Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:RF traded up $0.96 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $27.40. The company had a trading volume of 15,523,281 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,246,570. Regions Financial has a fifty-two week low of $17.74 and a fifty-two week high of $27.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $24.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.04.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter. Regions Financial had a net margin of 22.49% and a return on equity of 13.05%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Regions Financial will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Regions Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, December 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.265 per share. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RF. Morgan Stanley set a $32.00 target price on Regions Financial in a report on Monday, September 29th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Regions Financial from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Regions Financial from $28.00 to $26.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald assumed coverage on shares of Regions Financial in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $30.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $27.00 price target (down previously from $30.00) on shares of Regions Financial in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Regions Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.93.

Regions Financial Company Profile

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.