NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

NatWest Group plc (NYSE:NWG) gapped down prior to trading on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $15.91, but opened at $15.25. NatWest Group shares last traded at $15.4280, with a volume of 706,574 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on NWG shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of NatWest Group from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Zacks Research cut shares of NatWest Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of NatWest Group in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of NatWest Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of NatWest Group in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

NatWest Group Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market cap of $61.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.61, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.96.

NatWest Group (NYSE:NWG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.08. NatWest Group had a net margin of 18.59% and a return on equity of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NatWest Group plc will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NatWest Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 5th. Investors of record on Friday, March 20th will be issued a $0.621 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 895.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 20th. NatWest Group’s payout ratio is 67.60%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NatWest Group

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wealthstar Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC now owns 40,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $710,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 4,667 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,000 after acquiring an additional 695 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 29,272 shares of the company’s stock worth $414,000 after acquiring an additional 697 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 63,621 shares of the company’s stock worth $900,000 after acquiring an additional 702 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vise Technologies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NatWest Group by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 46,783 shares of the company’s stock worth $662,000 after acquiring an additional 733 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 1.27% of the company’s stock.

About NatWest Group

NatWest Group plc is a major UK-based banking and financial services group headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company traces its roots to the Royal Bank of Scotland, founded in 1727, and adopted the NatWest Group name in 2020 as part of a strategic refocus on its NatWest brand. NatWest Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and also has American depositary shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NWG.

The group provides a broad range of banking services across retail, private, commercial, corporate and institutional segments.