Citizens Financial Group Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:CFG)

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 4,592 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 63% compared to the average volume of 2,817 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CFG. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $31.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com cut shares of Citizens Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.13.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 6,327 shares of Citizens Financial Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.70, for a total transaction of $213,219.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 37,558 shares in the company, valued at $1,265,704.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Financial Group

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 217.5% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,978,410 shares of the bank’s stock worth $213,821,000 after acquiring an additional 5,465,824 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Citizens Financial Group in the fourth quarter worth about $117,372,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 1,213.2% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,746,064 shares of the bank’s stock worth $100,395,000 after acquiring an additional 3,460,792 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 95.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,484,439 shares of the bank’s stock worth $66,584,000 after acquiring an additional 1,213,573 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 96.3% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,472,122 shares of the bank’s stock worth $81,932,000 after acquiring an additional 1,212,642 shares during the period. 94.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of CFG opened at $35.15 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.74 and a beta of 1.38. Citizens Financial Group has a 12-month low of $22.77 and a 12-month high of $36.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $30.98.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 11.52% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. Citizens Financial Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 60.87%.

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.