Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Consensus "Moderate Buy": 11 analysts cover Voya (7 Buy, 3 Hold, 1 Sell) with an average 12‑month price target of $85.50, and recent notable calls include TD Cowen initiating at $100 and Bank of America cutting to an "underperform" with a $70 target.
• Mixed quarterly results and valuation: Voya reported EPS of $1.94 (vs. $2.11 expected) while revenue beat at $2.01B, and the stock trades around $80.52 with a $7.44B market cap and a trailing P/E of 12.8.
• Income and ownership profile: Voya pays a $0.47 quarterly dividend ($1.88 annual, ~2.3% yield, ~29.9% payout ratio) and has heavy institutional ownership (about 96.1%), with several funds recently increasing positions.

Shares of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.50.

Several analysts recently commented on VOYA shares. Evercore cut their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Voya Financial in a research note on Monday. They set a "buy" rating and a $100.00 target price for the company. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $92.00 to $87.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Voya Financial from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Voya Financial

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 21.1% during the third quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 151,462 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $11,329,000 after acquiring an additional 26,346 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 3.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,662,301 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $199,140,000 after acquiring an additional 88,151 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 1.8% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,431,802 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $181,901,000 after acquiring an additional 43,513 shares during the period. Cadence Bank raised its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 59.9% during the third quarter. Cadence Bank now owns 49,299 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $3,688,000 after acquiring an additional 18,462 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH raised its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 148.5% during the third quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 151,883 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $11,361,000 after acquiring an additional 90,764 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.10% of the company's stock.

Voya Financial Trading Up 2.1%

Voya Financial stock opened at $80.52 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a PE ratio of 12.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 0.86. Voya Financial has a 12-month low of $57.74 and a 12-month high of $80.76.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The asset manager reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.17). Voya Financial had a return on equity of 13.96% and a net margin of 7.99%.The business had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.40 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Voya Financial will post 9.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Voya Financial's dividend payout ratio is currently 29.89%.

About Voya Financial

Voya Financial, Inc NYSE: VOYA is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya's operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya's core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.

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.