StockNews.com Upgrades State Street (NYSE:STT) to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of State Street (NYSE:STT) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on STT. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of State Street from $108.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on State Street from $108.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and set a $103.00 price objective (down from $104.00) on shares of State Street in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised State Street from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $105.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $100.73.

State Street Stock Performance

NYSE:STT opened at $99.09 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $29.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.03, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $98.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $90.36. State Street has a twelve month low of $70.20 and a twelve month high of $101.91.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.31. State Street had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3,267,560 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.04 earnings per share. State Street’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that State Street will post 9.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%. State Street’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling at State Street

In other State Street news, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.97, for a total value of $1,224,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 111,042 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,878,784.74. This represents a 10.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On State Street

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of STT. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in State Street by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,169,070 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $632,111,000 after acquiring an additional 41,442 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of State Street by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,112,758 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $540,796,000 after acquiring an additional 833,679 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of State Street by 30.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,811,415 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $514,136,000 after purchasing an additional 1,354,560 shares during the last quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd boosted its stake in State Street by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 4,286,306 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $379,209,000 after purchasing an additional 161,466 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in State Street by 13.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,366,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $306,116,000 after purchasing an additional 408,792 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

State Street Company Profile

State Street Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company offers investment servicing products and services, including custody, accounting, regulatory reporting, investor, and performance and analytics; middle office products, such as IBOR, transaction management, loans, cash, derivatives and collateral, record keeping, and client reporting and investment analytics; finance leasing; foreign exchange, and brokerage and other trading services; securities finance and enhanced custody products; deposit and short-term investment facilities; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; performance, risk, and compliance analytics; and financial data management to support institutional investors.