Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Makes New $377,000 Investment in Regions Financial Corporation $RF

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 16,050 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $377,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RF. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in Regions Financial by 5.3% during the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 13,855 shares of the bank’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 6.9% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,138,791 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $24,746,000 after acquiring an additional 73,107 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial in the first quarter valued at approximately $272,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 0.5% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,989,323 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $130,148,000 after acquiring an additional 32,082 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 11.3% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 457,409 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,940,000 after acquiring an additional 46,265 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on RF. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Finally, Barclays restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $27.00 price objective (up from $24.00) on shares of Regions Financial in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.19.

Insider Activity at Regions Financial

In other Regions Financial news, Director Roger W. Jenkins purchased 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.48 per share, with a total value of $101,920.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 6,383 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $162,638.84. The trade was a 167.86% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Regions Financial Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of RF opened at $24.37 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.18. The company has a market capitalization of $21.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.81. Regions Financial Corporation has a 1-year low of $17.74 and a 1-year high of $27.96.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter. The business 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Regions Financial Corporation will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.265 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. This represents a $1.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.70%.

About Regions Financial

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.