Freestone Grove Partners LP Makes New $16.96 Million Investment in Voya Financial, Inc. $VOYA

Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE:VOYA) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 187,389 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $16,964,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP owned about 0.21% of Voya Financial at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sculptor Capital LP acquired a new stake in Voya Financial during the 2nd quarter worth $30,237,000. Odyssean LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Voya Financial in the second quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Man Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of Voya Financial in the second quarter valued at approximately $5,459,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in shares of Voya Financial during the second quarter worth approximately $3,864,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in shares of Voya Financial during the second quarter worth approximately $462,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.10% of the company’s stock.

Voya Financial Stock Performance

NYSE:VOYA opened at $101.20 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $97.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.53. Voya Financial, Inc. has a 1-year low of $64.50 and a 1-year high of $103.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market cap of $9.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.89.

Voya Financial (NYSE:VOYA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The asset manager reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.98 by ($0.47). Voya Financial had a return on equity of 12.31% and a net margin of 7.45%.The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.66 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Voya Financial, Inc. will post 9.25 EPS for the current year.

Voya Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 26th. Voya Financial’s payout ratio is 31.70%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Trevor Ogle sold 3,994 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.00, for a total transaction of $359,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 2,887 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $259,830. This represents a 58.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 1.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on VOYA shares. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $111.00 price target on shares of Voya Financial in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Voya Financial from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Voya Financial from $100.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Voya Financial from $112.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Voya Financial has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $103.85.

Voya Financial 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.