Mizuho Financial Group (NYSE:MFG) Hits New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Shares of Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:MFG) hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $8.09 and last traded at $7.9750, with a volume of 180893 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $7.94.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Mizuho Financial Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy”.

Mizuho Financial Group Stock Up 0.9%

The firm has a market capitalization of $99.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.57, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $7.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $6.58.

Mizuho Financial Group (NYSE:MFG) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 28th. The bank reported ($1.61) EPS for the quarter. Mizuho Financial Group had a return on equity of 9.20% and a net margin of 11.57%.The company had revenue of $7.53 billion for the quarter. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. will post 0.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Mizuho Financial Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Mizuho Financial Group by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,343 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,998 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Mizuho Financial Group by 29.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 392,998 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,165,000 after buying an additional 89,095 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Mizuho Financial Group by 0.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 14,508,417 shares of the bank’s stock worth $79,941,000 after buying an additional 57,806 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its holdings in Mizuho Financial Group by 129.0% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 51,966 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $286,000 after buying an additional 29,273 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Mizuho Financial Group by 89.6% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 13,663 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 6,455 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 3.26% of the company’s stock.

About Mizuho Financial Group

Mizuho Financial Group, Inc is a major Japanese banking and financial services holding company headquartered in Tokyo. The group operates through a network of subsidiaries that provide a full range of retail, corporate and investment banking services. Its core businesses include deposit-taking and lending, transaction banking, cash management, trade finance and treasury services for both individual and institutional clients.

Beyond traditional commercial banking, Mizuho offers securities and capital markets services, investment banking, underwriting, M&A advisory, and asset management through its securities and trust banking arms.