Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Grows Stock Position in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 27,786,933 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 816,226 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 3.06% of Regions Financial worth $648,269,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of RF. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Regions Financial by 281.7% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 79,593 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,675,000 after purchasing an additional 58,739 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 1,075.7% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 44,781 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $942,000 after buying an additional 40,972 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Regions Financial in the 1st quarter valued at $19,322,000. National Pension Service raised its stake in Regions Financial by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,722,024 shares of the bank’s stock worth $40,175,000 after acquiring an additional 102,380 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in Regions Financial by 47.7% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 275,757 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,666,000 after acquiring an additional 89,045 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.39% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on RF. StockNews.com upgraded Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Regions Financial from $24.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Argus upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $24.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.41.

Regions Financial Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of RF opened at $26.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Regions Financial Co. has a 1-year low of $15.79 and a 1-year high of $26.92. The stock has a market cap of $24.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.74.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.78% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.74%. Regions Financial’s payout ratio is 56.50%.

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.