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

StockNews.com lowered shares of State Street (NYSE:STT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $103.00 price target (down previously from $104.00) on shares of State Street in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Barclays lifted their price target on State Street from $108.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $105.00 to $120.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wolfe Research upgraded State Street from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on State Street from $139.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.73.

State Street Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of STT stock opened at $99.16 on Friday. State Street has a 1 year low of $70.20 and a 1 year high of $103.00. The stock has a market cap of $29.07 billion, a PE ratio of 12.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.43. The business’s fifty day moving average is $98.59 and its 200-day moving average is $92.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.31. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.27 billion. State Street had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 12.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.04 EPS. Equities analysts expect that State Street will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

State Street Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On State Street

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new position in State Street during the fourth quarter valued at about $16,697,000. Becker Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of State Street in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Voleon Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of State Street in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $257,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of State Street by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 999,498 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $98,101,000 after purchasing an additional 51,218 shares during the period. Finally, Lido Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of State Street by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 11,113 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,091,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About State Street

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.