GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases 2,776 Shares of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 22.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,977 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 2,776 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $670,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in Citizens Financial Group by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 54,475 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,438,000 after buying an additional 596 shares during the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group in the 2nd quarter worth $238,000. BTC Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 53,167 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,349,000 after purchasing an additional 4,972 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 28.6% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 9,686 shares of the bank’s stock worth $433,000 after purchasing an additional 2,154 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional boosted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 6,642 shares of the bank’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CFG shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Citizens Financial Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Raymond James Financial raised their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Citigroup raised their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $57.00 price target on Citizens Financial Group in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.35.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

CFG stock opened at $53.19 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $50.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $22.94 billion, a PE ratio of 16.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.80. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $32.60 and a 1-year high of $53.89.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The bank reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.01 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.94% and a net margin of 13.26%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 31st were issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 31st. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is 51.06%.

Citizens Financial Group announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Friday, June 13th that permits the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the bank to repurchase up to 8.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Citizens Financial Group Company Profile

Citizens Financial Group, Inc operates as the bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking.