Legal & General Group Plc Makes New $10.78 Million Investment in Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 119,106 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $10,783,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of VOYA. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in shares of Voya Financial in the second quarter valued at $5,722,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Voya Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $643,000. PEAK6 LLC acquired a new stake in Voya Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,275,000. Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new position in shares of Voya Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,881,000. Finally, Commerce Bank purchased a new position in shares of Voya Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $343,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Voya Financial news, insider Trevor Ogle sold 3,994 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total value of $359,460.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 2,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $259,830. The trade was a 58.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VOYA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Voya Financial from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Voya Financial from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Voya Financial from $95.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Atlantic Securities set a $79.00 price objective on shares of Voya Financial in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Voya Financial from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Voya Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.85.

Voya Financial Stock Performance

NYSE VOYA opened at $101.37 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. Voya Financial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $64.50 and a 1 year high of $103.85. The company has a market capitalization of $9.18 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a fifty day moving average of $97.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $83.88.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The asset manager reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98 by ($0.47). Voya Financial had a return on equity of 12.31% and a net margin of 7.45%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.66 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 9.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 26th. Voya Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.70%.

Voya Financial Company Profile

Voya Financial, Inc (NYSE: VOYA) is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya’s operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya’s core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.