ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the seven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of ING Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Barclays upgraded shares of ING Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of ING Group in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Cfra Research upgraded shares of ING Group from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th.

ING Group Stock Performance

NYSE:ING opened at $25.79 on Friday. ING Group has a twelve month low of $15.09 and a twelve month high of $26.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.83. The company has a 50-day moving average of $24.64 and a 200-day moving average of $22.03. The firm has a market cap of $81.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.07.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The financial services provider reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.05. ING Group had a net margin of 27.28% and a return on equity of 11.62%. The company had revenue of $6.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.40 billion. Analysts forecast that ING Group will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ING Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 11th were issued a $0.4002 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 450.0%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 11th. ING Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.80%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of ING Group by 7.3% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 8,764,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $191,681,000 after purchasing an additional 593,424 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ING Group by 2.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,894,501 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $154,653,000 after purchasing an additional 185,506 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of ING Group by 4.4% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,342,916 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $85,078,000 after purchasing an additional 181,800 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ING Group by 25.7% during the first quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 4,250,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $83,274,000 after purchasing an additional 869,281 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ING Group by 2.6% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,908,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,737,000 after purchasing an additional 48,023 shares during the period. 4.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About ING Group

ING Groep N.V. provides various banking products and services in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, rest of Europe, and internationally. It operates through five segments: Retail Netherlands, Retail Belgium, Retail Germany, Retail Other, and Wholesale Banking. The company accepts current and savings accounts.