Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.24

Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the bank on Monday, July 1st. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.09%.

Regions Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 12.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. Regions Financial has a payout ratio of 43.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Regions Financial to earn $2.22 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 43.2%.

Regions Financial Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:RF opened at $18.86 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.02, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.21. Regions Financial has a 12-month low of $13.72 and a 12-month high of $21.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 19th. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. Regions Financial had a net margin of 22.66% and a return on equity of 14.50%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.67 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Regions Financial will post 1.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

RF has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Regions Financial from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com cut Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Argus cut Regions Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of Regions Financial in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Regions Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.39.

Institutional Trading of Regions Financial

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Regions Financial by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,704,755 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,281,118,000 after purchasing an additional 3,119,237 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Regions Financial by 0.4% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,312,924 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $943,529,000 after purchasing an additional 189,323 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Regions Financial by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,189,021 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $435,275,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,291 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Regions Financial by 1.4% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,884,039 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $368,222,000 after purchasing an additional 275,489 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Regions Financial by 3.4% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,271,811 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $362,211,000 after purchasing an additional 536,935 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

About Regions Financial

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.