Holocene Advisors LP Acquires New Stake in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Holocene Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 384,412 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $8,968,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 27,786,933 shares of the bank’s stock worth $648,269,000 after acquiring an additional 816,226 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Regions Financial by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,252,693 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $285,562,000 after acquiring an additional 979,597 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,625,734 shares of the bank’s stock worth $201,238,000 after buying an additional 1,014,706 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Regions Financial by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,226,353 shares of the bank’s stock worth $191,921,000 after buying an additional 61,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in Regions Financial by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,109,633 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $72,548,000 after purchasing an additional 241,838 shares in the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup raised their price objective on Regions Financial from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Stephens upgraded Regions Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $26.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Regions Financial from $24.50 to $26.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wedbush increased their target price on Regions Financial from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Regions Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $27.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Regions Financial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.18.

Regions Financial Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of RF opened at $26.35 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.19. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $22.20. Regions Financial Co. has a twelve month low of $16.86 and a twelve month high of $27.96.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.04). Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.78% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.80 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Regions Financial’s payout ratio is 56.50%.

About Regions Financial

Regions Financial Corporation, a financial holding company, provides banking and bank-related services to individual and corporate customers. It operates through three segments: Corporate Bank, Consumer Bank, and Wealth Management. The Corporate Bank segment offers commercial banking services, such as commercial and industrial, commercial real estate, and investor real estate lending; equipment lease financing; deposit products; and securities underwriting and placement, loan syndication and placement, foreign exchange, derivatives, merger and acquisition, and other advisory services.