Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) Receives $117.71 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $117.71.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Stifel Financial from $128.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JMP Securities raised their target price on shares of Stifel Financial from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Stifel Financial from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Stifel Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company.

Stifel Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SF opened at $98.42 on Tuesday. Stifel Financial has a fifty-two week low of $72.78 and a fifty-two week high of $120.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.77 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50-day moving average of $109.39 and a 200-day moving average of $103.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.27. Stifel Financial had a net margin of 14.00% and a return on equity of 16.59%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Stifel Financial will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stifel Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. This is an increase from Stifel Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Stifel Financial’s payout ratio is presently 29.49%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Stifel Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,628,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $915,346,000 after buying an additional 672,420 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 1.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,122,342 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $293,188,000 after buying an additional 31,101 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 32.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,588,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $274,637,000 after buying an additional 630,255 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 1.5% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,279,267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $214,023,000 after buying an additional 33,953 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Stifel Financial by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,696,605 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $159,355,000 after acquiring an additional 20,110 shares during the last quarter. 82.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Stifel Financial

Stifel Financial Corp., a financial services and bank holding company, provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and Other.