Stewart Information Services Co. (NYSE:STC) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Stewart Information Services Co. (NYSE:STC) by 4.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 130,453 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 5,548 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.47% of Stewart Information Services worth $9,750,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Stewart Information Services by 0.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,488,342 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $185,979,000 after buying an additional 8,853 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Stewart Information Services by 0.7% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,641,717 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $122,702,000 after purchasing an additional 10,811 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Stewart Information Services by 16.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,247,762 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $93,258,000 after purchasing an additional 179,364 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Stewart Information Services by 7.2% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 985,673 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $73,669,000 after purchasing an additional 65,965 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Stewart Information Services by 906.9% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 656,143 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $40,733,000 after buying an additional 590,977 shares during the last quarter. 96.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Matthew Morris sold 12,899 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.12, for a total transaction of $956,073.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 65,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,842,259.60. This represents a 16.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on STC. StockNews.com raised shares of Stewart Information Services from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Stewart Information Services from $79.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th.

Stewart Information Services Stock Down 1.7 %

STC stock opened at $67.87 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.01 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $72.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $70.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 1.94. Stewart Information Services Co. has a 12 month low of $56.16 and a 12 month high of $78.44.

Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $667.94 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $638.40 million. Stewart Information Services had a net margin of 2.47% and a return on equity of 5.77%. The business’s revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Stewart Information Services Co. will post 3.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Stewart Information Services Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Stewart Information Services’s payout ratio is currently 94.34%.

About Stewart Information Services

Stewart Information Services Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides title insurance and real estate transaction related services in the United States and internationally. The company involves in searching, examining, closing, and insuring the condition of the title to real property. It also offers home and personal insurance services; services for tax-deferred exchanges; and digital customer engagement platform services.