BMO Capital Markets Initiates Coverage on Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF)

Equities research analysts at BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage set a “market perform” rating and a $121.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 8.73% from the company’s current price.

SF has been the topic of a number of other reports. JMP Securities upped their target price on shares of Stifel Financial from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Citigroup raised shares of Stifel Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus set a $135.00 price objective on shares of Stifel Financial in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Zacks Research cut shares of Stifel Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Stifel Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 3rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Stifel Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $116.30.

Stifel Financial Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:SF opened at $111.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.82. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $113.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $101.96. The stock has a market cap of $11.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 1.13. Stifel Financial has a one year low of $73.27 and a one year high of $120.64.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.65 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Stifel Financial had a return on equity of 13.93% and a net margin of 11.90%.The business’s revenue was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Stifel Financial will post 8.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners grew its position in Stifel Financial by 2,727.0% during the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,326,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $241,468,000 after acquiring an additional 2,243,961 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Stifel Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at about $143,377,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Stifel Financial by 314.1% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,383,836 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,049,665 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Stifel Financial by 529.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 398,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,576,000 after purchasing an additional 335,257 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Stifel Financial during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,564,000. 82.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Stifel Financial Company Profile

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.