Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) Price Target Raised to $22.00

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF - Free Report) had its target price hoisted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $21.00 to $22.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods currently has a market perform rating on the bank's stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on RF. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $15.00 to $22.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Regions Financial from $21.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Regions Financial from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 6th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Regions Financial from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Stephens restated an equal weight rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of Regions Financial in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $20.39.

Regions Financial Price Performance

Shares of RF traded up $0.08 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $20.14. The company had a trading volume of 3,490,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,817,887. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $19.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.84. Regions Financial has a 1-year low of $13.72 and a 1-year high of $21.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a market capitalization of $18.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.21.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 19th. The bank reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.48 by ($0.09). Regions Financial had a net margin of 22.66% and a return on equity of 14.50%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.67 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Regions Financial will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.77%. Regions Financial's dividend payout ratio is currently 45.93%.

Institutional Trading of Regions Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of RF. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Regions Financial by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,704,755 shares of the bank's stock valued at $2,281,118,000 after purchasing an additional 3,119,237 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 55,775,416 shares of the bank's stock valued at $1,080,928,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951,026 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 0.4% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,312,924 shares of the bank's stock valued at $943,529,000 after purchasing an additional 189,323 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 16.1% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,189,021 shares of the bank's stock valued at $435,275,000 after purchasing an additional 2,802,291 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 3.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 20,169,876 shares of the bank's stock valued at $346,922,000 after purchasing an additional 618,384 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company's stock.

About Regions Financial

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.