Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eighteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have given a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $22.06.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wedbush upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Regions Financial

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of RF. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Regions Financial by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,704,755 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,281,118,000 after purchasing an additional 3,119,237 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 55,775,416 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,080,928,000 after buying an additional 1,951,026 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 7.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,252,693 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $285,562,000 after acquiring an additional 979,597 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Regions Financial by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 7,707,381 shares of the bank’s stock worth $162,163,000 after purchasing an additional 103,529 shares during the period. Finally, Cincinnati Insurance Co. bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial during the first quarter worth $74,606,000. 79.39% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Regions Financial Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of Regions Financial stock opened at $23.03 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Regions Financial has a 12-month low of $13.72 and a 12-month high of $23.47. The company has a market cap of $21.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.52, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.17. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $20.54.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.76 billion. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.91% and a return on equity of 12.64%. Regions Financial’s quarterly revenue was down 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Regions Financial will post 2.01 EPS for the current year.

Regions Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This is a positive change from Regions Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.34%. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.35%.

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.