National Pension Service Buys 102,380 Shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF)

National Pension Service lifted its stake in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF - Free Report) by 6.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,722,024 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 102,380 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.19% of Regions Financial worth $40,175,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of RF. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. bought a new position in Regions Financial during the 1st quarter worth $204,000. Norden Group LLC acquired a new stake in Regions Financial in the 1st quarter worth about $459,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Regions Financial by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 159,300 shares of the bank's stock valued at $3,334,000 after purchasing an additional 7,347 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 8.8% during the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 92,400 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,944,000 after purchasing an additional 7,497 shares during the period. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its holdings in shares of Regions Financial by 117.0% during the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 32,821 shares of the bank's stock worth $691,000 after purchasing an additional 17,698 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.39% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RF has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Regions Financial from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $26.00 in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Bank of America raised their target price on Regions Financial from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Wedbush lifted their price target on Regions Financial from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $25.45.

Regions Financial Trading Down 3.4 %

NYSE:RF traded down $0.90 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $25.41. 9,131,327 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,961,626. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.16. Regions Financial Co. has a one year low of $14.86 and a one year high of $26.33. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The bank reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.04). Regions Financial had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 18.78%. The company had revenue of $1.79 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. Regions Financial's revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Regions Financial Co. will post 2.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Regions Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Regions Financial's dividend payout ratio is currently 56.50%.

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.