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

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) was upgraded by research analysts at Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $41.00 price target on the bank’s stock, up from their previous price target of $35.00. Piper Sandler’s target price points to a potential upside of 17.18% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Barclays lowered shares of Citizens Financial Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $38.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Argus lifted their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Citizens Financial Group from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.13.

Citizens Financial Group Stock Performance

Shares of CFG opened at $34.99 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.68 and a beta of 1.38. Citizens Financial Group has a 12 month low of $22.77 and a 12 month high of $36.38. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.89. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.96 billion. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 6.62% and a net margin of 11.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Citizens Financial Group

In other Citizens Financial Group news, insider Craig Jack Read sold 6,327 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.70, for a total transaction of $213,219.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 37,558 shares in the company, valued at $1,265,704.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Simplicity Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Citizens Financial Group during the 1st quarter worth $400,000. Amalgamated Bank grew its position in Citizens Financial Group by 33.0% in the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 152,412 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,531,000 after acquiring an additional 37,798 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in Citizens Financial Group by 1.6% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 26,737 shares of the bank’s stock worth $970,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 31.3% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 47,918 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,739,000 after acquiring an additional 11,429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Citizens Financial Group by 8.3% in the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 409,217 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,850,000 after acquiring an additional 31,506 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.