Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Acquires New Position in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 59,569 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,401,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,519,299 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $35,445,000 after acquiring an additional 253,708 shares during the period. Aprio Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,247,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 60.4% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 263,131 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,220,000 after acquiring an additional 99,115 shares during the period. Commerce Bank grew its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 392.5% during the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 248,325 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,793,000 after acquiring an additional 197,900 shares during the period. Finally, Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 1,479,865 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $34,806,000 after acquiring an additional 250,729 shares during the period. 79.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Regions Financial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Compass Point upped their price target on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Regions Financial from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Citigroup upped their price target on Regions Financial from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Stephens upgraded Regions Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.67.

Regions Financial Stock Performance

NYSE:RF opened at $23.40 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $24.08 and its 200 day moving average is $23.96. Regions Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $17.72 and a fifty-two week high of $27.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.26 billion, a PE ratio of 12.06, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.01. Regions Financial had a return on equity of 12.83% and a net margin of 20.20%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 EPS. Regions Financial’s quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.27%. Regions Financial’s payout ratio is presently 51.55%.

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.