State of Wyoming Invests $293,000 in Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA

Key Points

• The State of Wyoming invested approximately $293,000 in Voya Financial, acquiring 4,320 shares during the 1st quarter.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Voya Financial, with JPMorgan increasing it from $80.00 to $89.00 and UBS raising it to $90.00, reflecting a generally positive outlook.
• Voya Financial reported an EPS of $2.40 for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, despite a 2.6% year-over-year revenue decline.

State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 4,320 shares of the asset manager's stock, valued at approximately $293,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S acquired a new stake in shares of Voya Financial in the first quarter valued at $47,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 666.4% during the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 889 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 773 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 36.9% during the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 950 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $90,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 142.9% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 1,343 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $91,000 after purchasing an additional 790 shares during the last quarter. 96.10% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VOYA. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Voya Financial from $80.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Voya Financial from $84.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Voya Financial from $76.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Voya Financial from $80.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Voya Financial from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $83.70.

Voya Financial Trading Down 1.6%

NYSE:VOYA traded down $1.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $76.42. 1,593,168 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 713,135. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.07. Voya Financial, Inc. has a one year low of $52.43 and a one year high of $84.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.00.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The asset manager reported $2.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.31. Voya Financial had a net margin of 6.73% and a return on equity of 13.72%. The company had revenue of $1.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. Voya Financial's revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 8.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 26th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Voya Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.00%.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc engages in the provision of workplace benefits and savings products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Wealth Solutions, Health Solutions, and Investment Management. The Wealth Solutions segment offers full-service retirement products; recordkeeping services; stable value and fixed general account investment products; non-qualified plan administration services; and tools, guidance, and services to promote the financial well-being and retirement security of employees.