Empirical Finance LLC Boosts Stock Position in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 2.1% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 32,560 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 669 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sei Investments Co. grew its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 1.3% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 471,222 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $9,914,000 after buying an additional 5,962 shares during the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Regions Financial in the 1st quarter worth $287,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 9.3% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 818,028 shares of the bank’s stock worth $17,049,000 after purchasing an additional 69,291 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial during the first quarter valued at $829,000. Finally, Patten & Patten Inc. TN lifted its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 17.6% during the first quarter. Patten & Patten Inc. TN now owns 88,864 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,870,000 after purchasing an additional 13,329 shares in the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on RF shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $26.00 in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Argus upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Regions Financial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.18.

Regions Financial Price Performance

NYSE RF opened at $26.36 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Regions Financial Co. has a 12 month low of $15.79 and a 12 month high of $26.73. The stock has a market cap of $23.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.89, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. The company’s 50 day moving average is $23.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $21.58.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.78% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.50%.

Regions Financial 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.