Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $86.7778.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on VOYA shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Voya Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Voya Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Voya Financial in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Voya Financial from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Voya Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $83.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 8th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Voya Financial

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in Voya Financial by 3.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,662,301 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $199,140,000 after acquiring an additional 88,151 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 10.1% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 230,930 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $16,396,000 after purchasing an additional 21,186 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Voya Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,310,000. Davis Capital Management purchased a new stake in Voya Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,484,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its position in Voya Financial by 148.5% in the third quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 151,883 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $11,361,000 after buying an additional 90,764 shares during the last quarter. 96.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Voya Financial Price Performance

NYSE VOYA opened at $74.56 on Monday. Voya Financial has a one year low of $52.43 and a one year high of $79.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $75.42 and a 200 day moving average of $74.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $7.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.85, a PEG ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 0.89.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The asset manager reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.17). Voya Financial had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 13.96%. The company had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.40 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Voya Financial will post 8.39 EPS for the current year.

Voya Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 25th. Voya Financial’s payout ratio is 29.89%.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc (NYSE: VOYA) is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya’s operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya’s core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.