Citizens Financial Group, Inc. $CFG Shares Sold by Engineers Gate Manager LP

Engineers Gate Manager LP trimmed its position in Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) by 56.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 379,213 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 482,885 shares during the quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP’s holdings in Citizens Financial Group were worth $26,571,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 6,078 shares of the bank’s stock worth $355,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the period. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. now owns 56,309 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,946,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC now owns 19,694 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,150,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. MGO One Seven LLC raised its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 5,270 shares of the bank’s stock worth $308,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Financial LLC lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 7,719 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $451,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CFG shares. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a report on Monday, July 6th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Argus set a $80.00 target price on Citizens Financial Group in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Citizens Financial Group currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $79.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Bruce Van Saun sold 129,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.07, for a total transaction of $9,323,623.83. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,140,763 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,214,789.41. This trade represents a 10.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.67% of the company’s stock.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE:CFG opened at $69.43 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $29.24 billion, a PE ratio of 15.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.66. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $47.96 and a fifty-two week high of $75.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $71.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.92.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The bank reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.25 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 8.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.92 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group, Inc. will post 5.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 30th were paid a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 30th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Citizens Financial Group’s payout ratio is 39.91%.

Citizens Financial Group Company Profile

Citizens Financial Group, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. Through its primary subsidiary, Citizens Bank, the company provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses, institutions and government entities.

Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, consumer and residential lending, credit cards, business loans, commercial real estate financing, treasury management, investment banking, capital markets services and wealth management.