NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) Shares Gap Down - What's Next?

Key Points

• Shares gapped down: NatWest Group (NWG) opened at $15.25 after closing at $15.91 and was last trading around $15.43 on volume of about 706,574 shares.
• Analyst consensus is "Hold": MarketBeat data shows one Buy and five Hold ratings (consensus: Hold), with recent downgrades from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Zacks and a reaffirmation from Weiss Ratings.
• Fundamentals and dividend: NatWest beat quarterly estimates with $0.46 EPS (vs. $0.38 expected) and $5.74B revenue, has a market cap of $61.5B and P/E of 8.61, and announced a $0.621 dividend payable May 5 (ex-dividend March 20).

Shares of NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG - Get Free Report) gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $15.91, but opened at $15.25. NatWest Group shares last traded at $15.4280, with a volume of 706,574 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NWG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of NatWest Group in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered NatWest Group from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Barclays reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating on shares of NatWest Group in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Zacks Research lowered NatWest Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised NatWest Group from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold".

NatWest Group Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $15.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.32. The company has a market capitalization of $61.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.96.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. NatWest Group had a return on equity of 13.05% and a net margin of 18.59%. Equities research analysts predict that NatWest Group plc will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NatWest Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 20th will be paid a $0.621 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 20th. This represents a dividend yield of 895.0%. NatWest Group's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.60%.

Institutional Trading of NatWest Group

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 40,912,201 shares of the company's stock valued at $715,964,000 after buying an additional 1,677,879 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,531,451 shares of the company's stock valued at $188,764,000 after buying an additional 156,832 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 13,399,866 shares of the company's stock valued at $234,498,000 after buying an additional 494,472 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of NatWest Group by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,061,146 shares of the company's stock valued at $193,570,000 after buying an additional 1,009,044 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in NatWest Group by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,858,522 shares of the company's stock valued at $120,024,000 after acquiring an additional 18,334 shares in the last quarter. 1.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About NatWest Group

NatWest Group plc is a major UK-based banking and financial services group headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company traces its roots to the Royal Bank of Scotland, founded in 1727, and adopted the NatWest Group name in 2020 as part of a strategic refocus on its NatWest brand. NatWest Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and also has American depositary shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NWG.

The group provides a broad range of banking services across retail, private, commercial, corporate and institutional segments.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.