Citizens Financial Group (CFG) versus Its Competitors Head-To-Head Contrast

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) is one of 919 public companies in the “Banks” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Citizens Financial Group to similar businesses based on the strength of its dividends, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

94.9% of Citizens Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.8% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Citizens Financial Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.7% of shares of all “Banks” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Citizens Financial Group and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens Financial Group	0	4	17	0	2.81
Citizens Financial Group Competitors	7490	30240	27840	1484	2.35

Citizens Financial Group currently has a consensus target price of $76.79, indicating a potential upside of 18.30%. As a group, “Banks” companies have a potential upside of 14.71%. Given Citizens Financial Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Citizens Financial Group is more favorable than its peers.

Volatility & Risk

Citizens Financial Group has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens Financial Group’s peers have a beta of 0.61, meaning that their average share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Citizens Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Citizens Financial Group pays out 41.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Banks” companies pay a dividend yield of 8.9% and pay out 28.9% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Citizens Financial Group lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens Financial Group and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens Financial Group	$12.06 billion	$1.83 billion	13.06
Citizens Financial Group Competitors	$9.96 billion	$2.42 billion	21.32

Citizens Financial Group has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. Citizens Financial Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens Financial Group and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens Financial Group	18.07%	9.52%	0.98%
Citizens Financial Group Competitors	15.64%	9.43%	0.93%

Summary

Citizens Financial Group beats its peers on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

Citizens Financial Group Company Profile

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. Through Citizens Bank and related businesses, it provides retail and commercial banking services to individuals, businesses and institutions. Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, mortgages, personal and business loans, credit cards, wealth management, and commercial lending and cash-management services. The company also provides capital markets and other financial services to corporate clients.