Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,020,000 shares, a decline of 14.7% from the December 15th total of 10,570,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,200,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CFG. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 2.6% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 204,454 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,366,000 after buying an additional 5,191 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 606,290 shares of the bank’s stock worth $21,845,000 after acquiring an additional 17,755 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 15.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,429,264 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $159,550,000 after buying an additional 587,115 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 115.2% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 98,765 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,559,000 after acquiring an additional 52,880 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 3.0% during the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 15,778 shares of the bank’s stock worth $568,000 after buying an additional 458 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of Citizens Financial Group stock traded up $0.72 on Friday, hitting $47.52. 6,398,775 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,051,061. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.62. Citizens Financial Group has a 1 year low of $30.24 and a 1 year high of $49.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.94 billion, a PE ratio of 18.71, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.10.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 5.73% and a net margin of 10.37%. The company had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1,962,330 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.2 EPS for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.54%. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $47.00 to $46.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.78.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc operates as the bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking.