Stewart Information Services Co. (NYSE:STC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Stewart Information Services Co. (NYSE:STC) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the three ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $51.50.

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on Stewart Information Services in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Stewart Information Services

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in STC. Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its holdings in Stewart Information Services by 74.9% in the first quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 698 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 299 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Stewart Information Services in the second quarter worth $29,000. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Stewart Information Services by 60.3% in the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,255 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 848 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Stewart Information Services in the second quarter worth $115,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of Stewart Information Services by 92.8% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,960 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $179,000 after purchasing an additional 1,425 shares during the last quarter. 96.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Stewart Information Services Stock Performance

NYSE:STC opened at $45.84 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $1.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.81 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $43.62 and its 200-day moving average is $41.94. Stewart Information Services has a 1-year low of $36.01 and a 1-year high of $51.72.

Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 25th. The insurance provider reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.71 by $0.15. Stewart Information Services had a return on equity of 3.84% and a net margin of 1.50%. The firm had revenue of $601.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $573.37 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Stewart Information Services will post 2.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Stewart Information Services Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 15th were given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 14th. This is a positive change from Stewart Information Services’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.14%. Stewart Information Services’s payout ratio is currently 148.44%.

Stewart Information Services Company Profile

Stewart Information Services Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides title insurance and real estate transaction related services. The company operates through Title and Real Estate Solutions segments. The Title segment is involved in searching, examining, closing, and insuring the condition of the title to real property.