Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $86.3333.

VOYA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $93.00 target price on shares of Voya Financial in a report on Monday, December 15th. Wall Street Zen cut Voya Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, January 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Voya Financial from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Voya Financial in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Voya Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $83.00 to $93.00 in a report on Thursday, January 8th.

Voya Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Voya Financial stock opened at $77.30 on Thursday. Voya Financial has a 12 month low of $52.43 and a 12 month high of $79.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.55.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The asset manager reported $2.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.22 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.97 billion. Voya Financial had a net margin of 7.55% and a return on equity of 13.89%. Voya Financial’s revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Voya Financial will post 8.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Voya Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 26th were paid a $0.47 dividend. This is an increase from Voya Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $1.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 26th. Voya Financial’s payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

Institutional Trading of Voya Financial

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Voya Financial by 70.4% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,373,520 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $239,175,000 after buying an additional 1,394,321 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Voya Financial during the second quarter valued at about $97,876,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in Voya Financial by 119.6% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,085,387 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $148,062,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135,935 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Voya Financial by 17.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,516,879 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $487,463,000 after acquiring an additional 977,870 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Voya Financial by 135.7% in the third quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,084,747 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $81,139,000 after purchasing an additional 624,436 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Voya Financial Company Profile

Voya Financial, Inc (NYSE: VOYA) is a financial services company headquartered in New York City, focused on helping Americans plan, invest and protect their savings. The company traces its roots to the U.S. operations of ING Group, which were spun off in 2013 and rebranded as Voya Financial in 2014. Voya’s operations are built around a customer-centric approach, drawing on decades of experience in retirement planning and risk management to serve both individual and institutional clients.

Voya’s core business activities span three key segments: Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits.