Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Acquires 351,935 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 1,310.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 378,781 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 351,935 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $8,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. AMF Tjanstepension AB bought a new stake in Regions Financial during the 3rd quarter worth about $6,281,000. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in Regions Financial by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 24,928 shares of the bank’s stock worth $581,000 after purchasing an additional 429 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Regions Financial by 2,128.2% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 98,797 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,305,000 after purchasing an additional 94,363 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Regions Financial by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,086 shares of the bank’s stock worth $492,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden raised its holdings in Regions Financial by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 214,500 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,004,000 after purchasing an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. 79.39% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RF has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Regions Financial from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 target price (up from $28.00) on shares of Regions Financial in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Compass Point boosted their target price on Regions Financial from $25.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Regions Financial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.67.

Regions Financial Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE RF opened at $23.40 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.06, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $24.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.84. Regions Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $17.72 and a 52 week high of $27.96.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.86 billion. Regions Financial had a return on equity of 12.83% and a net margin of 20.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Regions Financial’s payout ratio is 51.55%.

Regions Financial Company Profile

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.