State Street (NYSE:STT) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of State Street (NYSE:STT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of State Street from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $105.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on State Street from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of State Street from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of State Street from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $102.00 to $139.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.36.

State Street Price Performance

STT stock opened at $98.58 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.44. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $96.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.11. State Street has a 52-week low of $70.20 and a 52-week high of $101.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The asset manager reported $2.26 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.14. State Street had a return on equity of 12.02% and a net margin of 9.87%. The company had revenue of $3.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 21.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that State Street will post 8.42 EPS for the current year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. State Street’s payout ratio is currently 48.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP John Plansky sold 13,859 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.32, for a total transaction of $1,265,603.88. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,108 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,032,462.56. This represents a 20.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of State Street stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.97, for a total transaction of $1,224,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 111,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,878,784.74. This represents a 10.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 26,460 shares of company stock worth $2,499,860. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On State Street

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of State Street by 1.2% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 346,252 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,633,000 after acquiring an additional 4,052 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of State Street in the third quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. raised its holdings in shares of State Street by 5.9% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 35,776 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,165,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of State Street by 13.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,366,549 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $306,116,000 after buying an additional 408,792 shares during the period. Finally, Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp grew its holdings in State Street by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 5,283 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $467,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.