Wall Street gave back advances posted earlier in the session and the three benchmarks ended in the red on Friday as retailers and financial stocks marked some of the biggest declines.
Volumes were below average on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, but well above the usual pace on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which saw the 30 blue chips mostly split between gainers and decliners.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) closed at $14.20 after seeing 40259621 shares trade hands during the most recent session. This represents a change of -2.61% from the opening.
The closing price represents the final price that a stock is traded for on a trading day. It's the most up-to-date valuation until trading begins again on the next day. However, most financial instruments are traded after hours, which means that the the closing price of a stock might not match the after-hours price. Regardless, closing prices are a useful tool that investors use to quantify changes in stock prices over time. The closing prices are compared day-by-day to look for trends and can measure market sentiment for any security over the course of a trading day.
Stock exchanges work according to the invisible hand of supply and demand, which determines the price where stocks are bought and sold. No trade can occur until someone is willing to sell a stock at a price that another is willing to buy it at. When there are more buyers than sellers, the stock price will rise because of the increased demand. Conversely, if more individuals are selling a stock, the price will decrease.
On any given trading day, supply and demand fluctuates back-and-forth because the attractiveness of a commodity's price rises and falls. Because of these fluctuations, the closing and opening prices are not necessarily identical. A number of factors can affect the attractiveness of a stock in the hours between the closing bell and the next day's opening bell. For example, if there is good news like a positive earnings announcement, the demand for a stock may increase, raising the price from the previous day's close. It follows that bad news will negatively affect price.
RECENT PERFORMANCE
Let's take a look at how the stock has been performing recently. Year to date Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) is 51.70%. Over the last week of the month, it was -2.74%, 47.67% over the last quarter, and 56.59% for the past six months.
Over the past 50 days, Regions Financial Corporation stock's -3.60% off of the high and 45.86% removed from the low. Their 52-Week High and Low are noted here. -3.60% (High), 108.05%, (Low).
FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS
Fundamental analysis examines the financial elements of a company, for example; sales, cash flow, profit and balance sheet. These numbers are then crunched to create theoretical valuations of companies.
Earnings Per Share (EPS) is the earnings made by a company divided by their number of shares. EPS enables the earnings of a company to easily be compared to their competitors. The higher the number, the more profit per dollar is being made on investor capital. Regions Financial Corporation's trailing 12-month EPS is 0.85. Their EPS should be compared to other companies in the Financial sector.
Price-to-Earnings Ratio is the current share price divided by annual earnings per share. P/E provides a number that details how many years of earnings it will take a stock to recoup the value of one share at current price levels. Easy to calculate and understand, P/E is an extremely common ratio that is used to compare valuations of stocks against each other relatively. Regions Financial Corporation's P/E ratio is 16.69.
Projected Earnings Growth (PEG) is a forward looking ratio based on anticipated earnings growth. PEG is created by dividing P/E by the projected rate of earnings growth. Regions Financial Corporation's PEG is 2.27.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Technical analysts have little regard for the value of a company. They use historic price data to observe stock price patterns to predict the direction of that price going forward. Analysts use common formulas and ratios to accomplish this.
Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF)'s RSI (Relative Strength Index) is 65.00. RSI is a technical indicator of price momentum, comparing the size of recent gains to the size of recent losses and establishes oversold and overbought positions.
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