Merit Financial Group LLC Buys Shares of 4,024 State Street Co. (NYSE:STT)

Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,024 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $395,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. KBC Group NV boosted its position in State Street by 20.5% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 74,680 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,607,000 after buying an additional 12,707 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of State Street by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 137,040 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,124,000 after acquiring an additional 20,183 shares during the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise boosted its holdings in shares of State Street by 118.9% during the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 42,667 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $3,775,000 after acquiring an additional 23,171 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in State Street by 43.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 68,815 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,069,000 after acquiring an additional 20,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in State Street by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 29,321 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,878,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares in the last quarter. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at State Street

In other State Street news, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 111,042 shares in the company, valued at $10,878,784.74. This represents a 10.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on STT. StockNews.com raised State Street from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of State Street from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on State Street from $106.00 to $104.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $103.00 target price (down from $104.00) on shares of State Street in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.73.

State Street Price Performance

STT opened at $99.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56. The firm 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. State Street Co. has a fifty-two week low of $70.20 and a fifty-two week high of $101.91. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $97.93 and a 200 day moving average of $90.18.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.31. State Street had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 12.14%. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3,267,560 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.04 earnings per share. State Street’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that State Street Co. will post 9.43 EPS for the current year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. State Street’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.89%.

State Street 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.