Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) Upgraded at Piper Sandler

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has a $41.00 price objective on the bank's stock, up from their previous price objective of $35.00. Piper Sandler's price target points to a potential upside of 16.69% from the stock's previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on CFG. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $31.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Citizens Financial Group presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $37.13.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

NYSE:CFG traded up $0.13 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $35.14. The stock had a trading volume of 3,168,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,799,489. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.68 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.89. Citizens Financial Group has a 52 week low of $22.77 and a 52 week high of $36.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a net margin of 11.52% and a return on equity of 6.62%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Citizens Financial Group news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 4,508 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.54, for a total value of $151,198.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 43,885 shares in the company, valued at $1,471,902.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.62% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Citizens Financial Group

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Citizens Financial Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,959,000. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 32.5% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 12,212 shares of the bank's stock valued at $327,000 after acquiring an additional 2,992 shares during the last quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 49.9% in the fourth quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 1,296,648 shares of the bank's stock valued at $42,970,000 after acquiring an additional 431,624 shares during the last quarter. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 3,222.9% in the third quarter. SeaTown Holdings Pte. Ltd. now owns 1,163,000 shares of the bank's stock valued at $31,168,000 after acquiring an additional 1,128,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 539,730 shares of the bank's stock valued at $17,887,000 after acquiring an additional 7,205 shares during the last quarter. 94.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc operates as the bank holding company that provides retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, corporations, and institutions in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking.