ING Group (NYSE:ING) Reaches New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

ING Group, N.V. (NYSE:ING)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $32.40 and last traded at $32.3410, with a volume of 293170 shares. The stock had previously closed at $31.48.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ING. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of ING Group in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research lowered ING Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of ING Group in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of ING Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of ING Group from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

ING Group Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $30.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.80. The stock has a market cap of $93.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.76, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73.

ING Group (NYSE:ING) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $616.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.86 billion. ING Group had a return on equity of 12.27% and a net margin of 27.68%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ING Group, N.V. will post 2.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ING Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ING. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of ING Group by 28.0% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 717,950 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,103,000 after purchasing an additional 157,111 shares during the last quarter. First Pacific Financial grew its holdings in ING Group by 665.4% during the fourth quarter. First Pacific Financial now owns 44,842 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,256,000 after purchasing an additional 38,983 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in ING Group by 22.2% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,721,021 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $44,884,000 after purchasing an additional 312,720 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in ING Group by 885.4% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 411,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,821,000 after buying an additional 369,310 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XY Capital Ltd increased its position in ING Group by 268.3% in the third quarter. XY Capital Ltd now owns 100,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,622,000 after buying an additional 73,246 shares during the last quarter. 4.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ING Group Company Profile

ING Group N.V. is a Dutch multinational financial services company headquartered in Amsterdam. Formed through the consolidation of Dutch financial businesses, ING operates as a banking and financial services group that serves retail, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporates and institutional clients. The company is organized under a two-tier governance model common in the Netherlands, with an Executive Board responsible for day-to-day management and a Supervisory Board providing oversight.

ING’s principal activities include retail and direct banking, commercial and wholesale banking, corporate lending, transaction services and cash management, and a range of investment and savings products.