Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) Short Interest Up 22.8% in March

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,160,000 shares, a growth of 22.8% from the February 28th total of 9,900,000 shares. Approximately 2.8% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 4,320,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Citizens Financial Group

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 35,900,115 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,570,989,000 after acquiring an additional 1,131,838 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 6.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,826,368 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,060,689,000 after buying an additional 1,615,144 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,929,591 shares of the bank’s stock worth $477,043,000 after purchasing an additional 124,860 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 27.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,570,083 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $462,547,000 after buying an additional 2,298,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 20.9% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,683,111 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $423,733,000 after purchasing an additional 1,672,204 shares during the last quarter. 94.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CFG shares. Citigroup dropped their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $58.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $58.00 price target (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Citizens Financial Group in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Compass Point increased their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $45.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $54.00 to $51.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Nine investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.67.

Citizens Financial Group Price Performance

Shares of Citizens Financial Group stock traded down $0.46 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $40.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,935,398 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,732,011. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $44.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $44.17. Citizens Financial Group has a 12-month low of $32.06 and a 12-month high of $49.25. The company has a market cap of $17.71 billion, a PE ratio of 13.37, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.06.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 12.21% and a return on equity of 6.75%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. Analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Citizens Financial Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.42 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.15%. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.45%.

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.