Royal Bank of Canada Raises Position in NatWest Group plc $NWG

Key Points

• Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in NatWest Group by 2.0%, acquiring an additional 53,690 shares and owning a total of 2,709,139 shares as of the end of the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors modified their holdings in NatWest Group, with Natixis Advisors LLC increasing its position by 11.8% and Bank of America Corp DE by 25.1%.
• NatWest Group's stock was recently downgraded by BNP Paribas Exane from "neutral" to "underperform," reflecting a shifting outlook among analysts, with a current average rating of "Hold."

Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG - Free Report) by 2.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,709,139 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 53,690 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.07% of NatWest Group worth $32,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of NatWest Group by 374.5% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,102 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,659 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT bought a new stake in shares of NatWest Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NatWest Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $30,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of NatWest Group during the 1st quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NatWest Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors own 1.27% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas Exane lowered NatWest Group from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Zacks Research lowered NatWest Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered NatWest Group from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NatWest Group has a consensus rating of "Hold".

NatWest Group Stock Up 0.3%

NWG stock traded up $0.04 during trading on Friday, reaching $14.47. 2,430,962 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,498,373. The firm's 50 day moving average is $14.15 and its 200 day moving average is $13.33. NatWest Group plc has a twelve month low of $8.69 and a twelve month high of $15.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $58.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.08.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 25th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. NatWest Group had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 16.84%.The business had revenue of $5.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.06 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that NatWest Group plc will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

NatWest Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th will be paid a $0.255 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 8th. This represents a dividend yield of 390.0%. NatWest Group's dividend payout ratio is 32.26%.

NatWest Group Profile

NatWest Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services to personal, commercial, corporate, and institutional customers in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates through Retail Banking, Private Banking, and Commercial & Institutional segments.