State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Raises Stake in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its holdings in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 17.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 268,901 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 40,842 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $6,273,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in Regions Financial by 281.7% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 79,593 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after acquiring an additional 58,739 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 1,075.7% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 44,781 shares of the bank’s stock worth $942,000 after acquiring an additional 40,972 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Regions Financial during the 1st quarter valued at $19,322,000. National Pension Service grew its position in Regions Financial by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,722,024 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $40,175,000 after acquiring an additional 102,380 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 47.7% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 275,757 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,666,000 after purchasing an additional 89,045 shares during the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stephens raised shares of Regions Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Barclays raised their price target on Regions Financial from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $24.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Regions Financial has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $25.45.

Regions Financial Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of Regions Financial stock opened at $26.20 on Tuesday. Regions Financial Co. has a 1 year low of $14.86 and a 1 year high of $26.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $23.81 billion, a PE ratio of 14.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $23.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.38.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.78% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.49 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.50%.

Regions Financial 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.