Regions Financial Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.25 (NYSE:RF)

Regions Financial Co. (NYSE:RF) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 16th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the bank on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.17%.

Regions Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 12.4% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Regions Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 44.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Regions Financial to earn $2.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.2%.

Regions Financial Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of RF traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $23.98. The company had a trading volume of 7,566,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,887,343. Regions Financial has a 52-week low of $13.72 and a 52-week high of $24.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $22.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Regions Financial (NYSE:RF) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The bank reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. Regions Financial had a net margin of 18.91% and a return on equity of 12.64%. The business’s revenue was down 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.59 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Regions Financial will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

RF has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Regions Financial from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Regions Financial from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Wedbush raised shares of Regions Financial from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $23.00 to $28.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Regions Financial from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Regions Financial from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Regions Financial presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.86.

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.