Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Sells 515,078 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lessened its holdings in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 22.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,828,551 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 515,078 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $42,660,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of RF. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in Regions Financial during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. American National Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Regions Financial by 1,856.7% in the 3rd quarter. American National Bank & Trust now owns 1,174 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114 shares during the period. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 157.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,335 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 816 shares during the period. MV Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Regions Financial by 75.6% in the 1st quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,435 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 618 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 530.0% during the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,493 shares of the bank’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on RF. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Wedbush raised shares of Regions Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $23.00 to $28.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.86.

Regions Financial Stock Up 1.1 %

RF traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $23.95. 1,322,566 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,857,559. Regions Financial Co. has a one year low of $13.72 and a one year high of $23.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $22.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.77. The company has a market cap of $21.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.17.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 19th. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.03. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.91% and a return on equity of 12.64%. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Regions Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were given a $0.25 dividend. This is an increase from Regions Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.18%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.35%.

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.