Grimes & Company Inc. Sells 379,844 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Grimes & Company Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF - Free Report) by 38.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 610,996 shares of the bank's stock after selling 379,844 shares during the period. Grimes & Company Inc. owned about 0.07% of Regions Financial worth $11,841,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of RF. Toroso Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 10,722 shares of the bank's stock valued at $231,000 after buying an additional 508 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its holdings in Regions Financial by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 3,881 shares of the bank's stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 549 shares during the period. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc grew its position in Regions Financial by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 144,317 shares of the bank's stock valued at $2,797,000 after acquiring an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 25,569 shares of the bank's stock valued at $496,000 after purchasing an additional 654 shares during the period. Finally, Kinneret Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 2.3% during the first quarter. Kinneret Advisory LLC now owns 29,352 shares of the bank's stock worth $658,000 after purchasing an additional 656 shares in the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Regions Financial from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the company from $15.00 to $22.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 9th. Citigroup raised Regions Financial from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Argus downgraded Regions Financial from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Regions Financial from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of Regions Financial in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Regions Financial currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $20.39.

Regions Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Regions Financial stock traded up $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $20.15. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,490,282 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,909,579. 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's 50 day simple moving average is $19.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.84. Regions Financial Co. has a one year low of $13.72 and a one year high of $21.08. The stock has a market cap of $18.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.21.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF - Get Free Report) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. Regions Financial had a return on equity of 14.50% and a net margin of 22.66%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.67 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Regions Financial Co. will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.76%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Regions Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.93%.

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.