State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $140.50.

STT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of State Street in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of State Street from $168.00 to $164.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of State Street in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of State Street from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of State Street from $147.00 to $157.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other State Street news, EVP John Plansky sold 16,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.32, for a total value of $2,001,552.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 56,162 shares in the company, valued at $6,982,059.84. This trade represents a 22.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On State Street

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of STT. Regents of The University of California lifted its stake in shares of State Street by 211.2% during the fourth quarter. Regents of The University of California now owns 8,706,195 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,123,186,000 after buying an additional 5,908,370 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of State Street during the fourth quarter worth $303,483,000. Pinebridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of State Street during the fourth quarter worth $178,705,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of State Street by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,559,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $588,227,000 after buying an additional 1,074,174 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its stake in shares of State Street by 261.0% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 1,217,802 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $141,277,000 after buying an additional 880,507 shares during the period. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

State Street Stock Performance

Shares of STT stock opened at $141.79 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $39.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.07, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s 50 day moving average is $127.95 and its 200 day moving average is $124.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. State Street has a 52-week low of $75.50 and a 52-week high of $142.76.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 16th. The asset manager reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.82 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.57 billion. State Street had a net margin of 13.02% and a return on equity of 13.46%. State Street’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.60 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that State Street will post 9.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

State Street Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were paid a $0.84 dividend. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 1st. State Street’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.71%.

State Street Company Profile

State Street Corporation is a global financial services company that provides a range of investment servicing, investment management and investment research and trading services to institutional investors. Its principal activities include custody and fund administration, securities lending, performance and risk analytics, trading and execution services, and foreign exchange. The company also offers investment management through State Street Global Advisors, a major provider of exchange-traded funds and institutional investment strategies.

State Street serves a broad client base of asset managers, insurance companies, pension funds, endowments, and other institutions across North America, Europe, Asia and other global markets.