Truist Financial Corporation $TFC Shares Sold by AustralianSuper Pty Ltd

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd cut its position in shares of Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE:TFC) by 35.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 111,150 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 61,472 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Truist Financial were worth $5,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of TFC. Independent Advisor Alliance grew its holdings in Truist Financial by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 329,093 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $15,046,000 after buying an additional 29,191 shares during the period. Cullen Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Truist Financial by 10.3% in the third quarter. Cullen Capital Management LLC now owns 4,591,783 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $209,936,000 after purchasing an additional 427,067 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management grew its holdings in Truist Financial by 12.3% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 336,095 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $15,366,000 after purchasing an additional 36,916 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Truist Financial by 2.6% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 421,809 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $19,285,000 after purchasing an additional 10,706 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its stake in Truist Financial by 18.6% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 169,030 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $7,728,000 after purchasing an additional 26,530 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on TFC. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Truist Financial from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays lowered Truist Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $47.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Truist Financial from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Truist Financial from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Truist Financial in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Truist Financial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.47.

Insider Activity at Truist Financial

In other news, CFO Michael Baron Maguire sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.13, for a total transaction of $651,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 74,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,725,811.99. This represents a 14.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Cynthia B. Powell sold 3,500 shares of Truist Financial stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.49, for a total transaction of $183,715.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 667 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,010.83. This trade represents a 83.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.17% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Truist Financial Price Performance

Shares of TFC stock opened at $49.12 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.65. The company has a market capitalization of $61.36 billion, a PE ratio of 12.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.87. Truist Financial Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.56 and a twelve month high of $56.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Truist Financial (NYSE:TFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 21st. The insurance provider reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.09 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $4.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.32 billion. Truist Financial had a return on equity of 9.03% and a net margin of 17.09%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Truist Financial Corporation will post 4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Truist Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 13th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.59%.

Truist Financial declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the insurance provider to reacquire up to 15.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Truist Financial

Truist Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company that provides a broad range of financial services through its primary subsidiary, Truist Bank, and other operating units. The company offers traditional retail banking products and services such as deposit accounts, consumer and residential mortgage lending, and credit and debit card services. Truist also serves commercial clients with middle-market and corporate lending, treasury and payment solutions, and specialty finance products.

Beyond core banking, Truist operates wealth management, asset management, insurance and capital markets businesses.