Traders Purchase Large Volume of Citizens Financial Group Call Options (NYSE:CFG)

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 7,407 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 198% compared to the typical volume of 2,482 call options.

Citizens Financial Group Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of CFG stock opened at $46.73 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $45.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.51. Citizens Financial Group has a 1-year low of $30.24 and a 1-year high of $49.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.59 billion, a PE ratio of 18.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The bank reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79. Citizens Financial Group had a return on equity of 5.73% and a net margin of 10.37%. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. Citizens Financial Group’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Citizens Financial Group will post 3.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CFG. Choreo LLC acquired a new position in Citizens Financial Group during the second quarter worth $369,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 2.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 204,454 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,366,000 after purchasing an additional 5,191 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 3.0% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 606,290 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $21,845,000 after purchasing an additional 17,755 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 1,015.8% in the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 10,232 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $369,000 after purchasing an additional 9,315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Citizens Financial Group by 15.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,429,264 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $159,550,000 after purchasing an additional 587,115 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CFG shares. Raymond James upgraded Citizens Financial Group from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $47.00 to $46.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Citizens Financial Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Citizens Financial Group from $48.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Citizens Financial Group presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.78.

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.