Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) Declares $0.42 Quarterly Dividend

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of 0.42 per share by the bank on Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th.

Citizens Financial Group has raised its dividend by an average of 2.5% annually over the last three years. Citizens Financial Group has a dividend payout ratio of 41.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Citizens Financial Group to earn $4.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.4%.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Up 0.4 %

CFG stock opened at $35.15 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Citizens Financial Group has a 12-month low of $22.77 and a 12-month high of $36.38. The stock has a market cap of $16.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.74 and a beta of 1.38. The business’s 50-day moving average is $33.68 and its 200 day moving average is $31.01.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 revenue for the quarter was down 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 4,508 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.54, for a total transaction of $151,198.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 43,885 shares in the company, valued at $1,471,902.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.62% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CFG. Barclays cut Citizens Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $38.00 to $40.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $31.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Argus lifted their price target on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $37.13.

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.