The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires New Holdings in Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 63,208 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $5,722,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VOYA. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Voya Financial in the second quarter valued at approximately $850,187,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Voya Financial during the 2nd quarter worth $520,280,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Voya Financial by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,492,908 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $334,677,000 after buying an additional 230,877 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Voya Financial by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 3,673,118 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $250,947,000 after buying an additional 46,906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in Voya Financial by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,557,281 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $265,363,000 after buying an additional 61,962 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on VOYA. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Voya Financial from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Voya Financial from $105.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. UBS Group increased their target price on Voya Financial from $95.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Voya Financial from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Voya Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $103.85.

Insider Buying and Selling at Voya Financial

In other news, insider Trevor Ogle sold 3,994 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $359,460.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 2,887 shares in the company, valued at approximately $259,830. The trade was a 58.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 1.57% of the company’s stock.

Voya Financial Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of VOYA opened at $101.37 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.27. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.88. Voya Financial, Inc. has a 52 week low of $64.50 and a 52 week high of $103.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.09, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.89.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The asset manager reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98 by ($0.47). Voya Financial had a return on equity of 12.31% and a net margin of 7.45%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.66 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 9.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 26th will be issued a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 26th. Voya Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.70%.

Voya Financial Company Profile

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.