Citizens Financial Group Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:CFG)

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 7,407 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 198% compared to the average volume of 2,482 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Citizens Financial Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CFG. State Street Corp grew its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 6.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,826,368 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,060,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,615,144 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 207.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,272,043 shares of the bank’s stock worth $339,733,000 after purchasing an additional 5,579,313 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,974,434 shares of the bank’s stock worth $217,781,000 after purchasing an additional 805,758 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,429,264 shares of the bank’s stock worth $159,550,000 after purchasing an additional 587,115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 61.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,422,948 shares of the bank’s stock worth $155,909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,886 shares in the last quarter. 94.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Up 2.8 %

NYSE CFG traded up $1.30 on Wednesday, reaching $47.00. The company had a trading volume of 685,354 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,146,364. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.10. The company’s fifty day moving average is $45.62 and its 200 day moving average is $42.48. Citizens Financial Group has a 52-week low of $30.24 and a 52-week high of $49.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The bank reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 5.73% and a net margin of 10.37%. Citizens Financial Group’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on CFG. Citigroup lifted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $46.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Citizens Financial Group from $47.00 to $46.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.78.

About Citizens Financial Group

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.