Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG)

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors bought 4,592 call options on the company. This is an increase of 63% compared to the typical volume of 2,817 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CFG. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $31.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays lowered shares of Citizens Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Argus increased their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $37.13.

Insider Activity at Citizens Financial Group

In other Citizens Financial Group news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 4,508 shares of Citizens Financial Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.54, for a total value of $151,198.32. Following the sale, the insider now owns 43,885 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,471,902.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Financial Group

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Citizens Financial Group in the fourth quarter valued at $1,959,000. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 32.5% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 12,212 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $327,000 after buying an additional 2,992 shares during the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 49.9% in the fourth quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,296,648 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,970,000 after acquiring an additional 431,624 shares during the period. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 3,222.9% during the third quarter. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. now owns 1,163,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,168,000 after acquiring an additional 1,128,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS increased its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 539,730 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $17,887,000 after acquiring an additional 7,205 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Up 0.4 %

CFG traded up $0.13 during trading on Friday, hitting $35.14. The stock had a trading volume of 3,168,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,799,489. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. Citizens Financial Group has a twelve month low of $22.77 and a twelve month high of $36.38. The company has a market capitalization of $16.11 billion, a PE ratio of 12.73 and a beta of 1.38.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last posted its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.96 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 11.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.00 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Citizens Financial Group Announces Dividend

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