Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) Shares Sold by Morningstar Investment Management LLC

Morningstar Investment Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) by 70.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,736 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 27,984 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Regions Financial were worth $276,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 16.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 55,485,987 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,306,813,000 after acquiring an additional 7,791,399 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted 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 valued at $648,269,000 after acquiring an additional 816,226 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,625,214 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $526,118,000 after acquiring an additional 315,605 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Regions Financial by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,738,619 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $203,273,000 after acquiring an additional 112,885 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position 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 valued at $191,921,000 after acquiring an additional 61,426 shares during the period. 79.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on RF shares. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $24.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Argus raised shares of Regions Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Regions Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Regions Financial from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $27.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.67.

Regions Financial Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE RF opened at $24.57 on Thursday. Regions Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $17.72 and a 52-week high of $27.96. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $24.17 and a 200-day moving average of $23.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.33 billion, a PE ratio of 12.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

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

Regions Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.07%. Regions Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.55%.

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.