MetLife Investment Management LLC Has $5.55 Million Stock Position in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

MetLife Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 238,016 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 6,310 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $5,553,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 13.3% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,625,734 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $201,238,000 after purchasing an additional 1,014,706 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,252,693 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $285,562,000 after buying an additional 979,597 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Regions Financial by 3.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 27,786,933 shares of the bank’s stock worth $648,269,000 after acquiring an additional 816,226 shares during the last quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Regions Financial by 1,533.3% during the second quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 645,659 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,939,000 after acquiring an additional 606,129 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Interval Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Regions Financial during the second quarter valued at $11,095,000. 79.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on RF shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Regions Financial from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Stephens raised shares of Regions Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Argus raised shares of Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.71.

Regions Financial Stock Performance

Shares of RF opened at $27.26 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $24.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $22.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.84. Regions Financial Co. has a twelve month low of $16.51 and a twelve month high of $27.96. The firm has a market cap of $24.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.40, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.16.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.04). Regions Financial had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 18.78%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.49 earnings per share. Regions Financial’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.