Swedbank AB Sells 107,987 Shares of Regions Financial Corporation $RF

Key Points

• Swedbank AB has reduced its stake in Regions Financial Corporation by 11.8%, selling 107,987 shares, and now holds approximately 804,972 shares valued at $18.93 million.
• Regions Financial recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.265, which signifies a 3.9% yield and an increase from the previous dividend of $0.25.
• Analysts have raised their target prices for Regions Financial, with Stephens and Citigroup setting new targets of $29.00 and $30.00 respectively, indicating positive sentiment towards the stock.

Swedbank AB reduced its stake in shares of Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF - Free Report) by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 804,972 shares of the bank's stock after selling 107,987 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB owned 0.09% of Regions Financial worth $18,933,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of RF. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Regions Financial by 35.7% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,990,446 shares of the bank's stock worth $456,122,000 after purchasing an additional 5,521,772 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Regions Financial during the 1st quarter worth approximately $53,018,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 6.5% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,092,742 shares of the bank's stock worth $675,645,000 after buying an additional 1,909,162 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its holdings in Regions Financial by 20.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 10,010,267 shares of the bank's stock valued at $198,721,000 after buying an additional 1,696,347 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Regions Financial by 3.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 44,211,562 shares of the bank's stock valued at $960,717,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,512 shares during the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Regions Financial news, EVP David R. Keenan sold 30,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.01, for a total value of $750,300.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 90,915 shares in the company, valued at $2,273,784.15. This trade represents a 24.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Roger W. Jenkins bought 4,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $25.48 per share, for a total transaction of $101,920.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 6,383 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $162,638.84. The trade was a 167.86% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on RF shares. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Regions Financial in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $30.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Regions Financial from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Stephens upped their price target on Regions Financial from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Regions Financial from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $27.58.

Regions Financial Stock Performance

Shares of RF traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $26.67. 10,411,815 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,220,402. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $23.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.02. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $26.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.17. Regions Financial Corporation has a 52 week low of $17.74 and a 52 week high of $27.96.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 18th. The bank reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.04. Regions Financial had a return on equity of 13.08% and a net margin of 21.81%.The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.52 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Regions Financial Corporation will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Regions Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be given a $0.265 dividend. This is a boost from Regions Financial's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. Regions Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.30%.

Regions Financial Company Profile

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.