First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 1,224,645 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,053,457 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,224,645 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 1.88% of Regions Financial worth $401,097,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Y.D. More Investments Ltd raised its holdings in Regions Financial by 122.9% in the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 1,150 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 634 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Regions Financial in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management increased its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 2,354.9% in the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 1,252 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Millstone Evans Group LLC purchased a new position in Regions Financial during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Creative Capital Management Investments LLC bought a new stake in Regions Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on RF. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Regions Financial from $29.00 to $22.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays increased their target price on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Regions Financial from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $28.00 to $26.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Regions Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $26.42.

Regions Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE RF opened at $19.26 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Regions Financial Co. has a 12-month low of $17.72 and a 12-month high of $27.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.01. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $21.59 and a 200 day moving average of $23.55.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. Regions Financial had a return on equity of 12.83% and a net margin of 20.20%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.37 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Regions Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.19%. Regions Financial’s payout ratio is currently 51.55%.

Insider Activity at Regions Financial

In other news, Director Joia M. Johnson bought 2,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $21.18 per share, for a total transaction of $48,714.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 17,486 shares in the company, valued at $370,353.48. This represents a 15.15 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In the last ninety days, insiders purchased 3,343 shares of company stock worth $74,348. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.