NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• NatWest Group plc has received an average rating of "Hold" from analysts, with two analysts recommending a sell, one a hold, and three a buy.
• Recent analyst reports downgraded NatWest Group, including a drop from "strong-buy" to "hold" by Zacks and from "neutral" to "underperform" by BNP Paribas Exane.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.41, exceeding analysts' estimates, along with a recently announced dividend of $0.255 per share.

NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Hold" from the six analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company.

NWG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research downgraded NatWest Group from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, August 18th. BNP Paribas Exane cut NatWest Group from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded NatWest Group from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Friday, September 5th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NatWest Group

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NWG. BNP Paribas Financial Markets bought a new position in shares of NatWest Group during the 4th quarter worth about $294,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 75,800 shares of the company's stock worth $771,000 after purchasing an additional 6,998 shares in the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth acquired a new stake in NatWest Group in the 4th quarter valued at $145,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in NatWest Group during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in NatWest Group by 122.9% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 632,836 shares of the company's stock worth $6,436,000 after buying an additional 348,963 shares during the last quarter. 1.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NatWest Group Stock Performance

Shares of NWG stock opened at $14.47 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.59 billion, a PE ratio of 9.34, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.08. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $14.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.06. NatWest Group has a one year low of $8.69 and a one year high of $15.52.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 25th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. NatWest Group had a net margin of 16.84% and a return on equity of 11.99%. The firm 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 will post 1.35 earnings per share for the current year.

NatWest Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.255 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 390.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. NatWest Group's payout ratio is presently 31.61%.

NatWest Group Company 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.

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