Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eighteen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $27.61.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RF. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Regions Financial from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $32.00 price objective (up from $28.00) on shares of Regions Financial in a report on Monday, December 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 24th.

Regions Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Regions Financial stock opened at $23.26 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Regions Financial has a 52 week low of $17.42 and a 52 week high of $27.96. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $25.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.00.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.04). Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.78% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Regions Financial will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.30%. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.50%.

Institutional Trading of Regions Financial

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Regions Financial by 3.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,087,697 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,376,000 after purchasing an additional 34,125 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Regions Financial by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 17,233 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $403,000 after buying an additional 584 shares during the last quarter. Forthright Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Regions Financial during the third quarter worth $181,000. Logan Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Regions Financial in the third quarter worth $2,195,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 30.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 702,627 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,758,000 after acquiring an additional 165,710 shares in the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Regions Financial Company Profile

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.