Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) Short Interest Update

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

CFG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $47.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Compass Point increased their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $45.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.00.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of CFG stock opened at $47.40 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.89 billion, a PE ratio of 15.64, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Citizens Financial Group has a one year low of $30.24 and a one year high of $49.25.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 12.21% and a return on equity of 6.75%. The company had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.45%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $249,000. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 206,231 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,431,000 after acquiring an additional 9,763 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 200.1% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 2,035 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 4.7% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 134,855 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,859,000 after acquiring an additional 6,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the second quarter worth $1,429,000. 94.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Citizens Financial Group Company Profile

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.