WASHINGTON TRUST Co Sells 354 Shares of State Street Co. (NYSE:STT)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co lowered its stake in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,140 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 354 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in State Street were worth $785,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of State Street during the 4th quarter valued at about $107,000. IFG Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of State Street by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 12,527 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $970,000 after buying an additional 583 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co of the South purchased a new stake in shares of State Street during the 4th quarter valued at about $320,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of State Street by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 175,952 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $13,629,000 after buying an additional 2,333 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new stake in shares of State Street during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of State Street from $87.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of State Street from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $81.00 price objective on shares of State Street in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of State Street from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of State Street from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, State Street presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $81.83.

Insider Activity at State Street

In other State Street news, CFO Eric W. Aboaf sold 12,000 shares of State Street stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.90, for a total transaction of $886,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 149,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,015,755.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other State Street news, CFO Eric W. Aboaf sold 12,000 shares of State Street stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.90, for a total transaction of $886,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 149,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,015,755.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Anthony Bisegna sold 2,606 shares of State Street stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.00, for a total transaction of $190,238.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,737 shares in the company, valued at $1,294,801. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,864 shares of company stock worth $1,390,597. 0.25% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

State Street Stock Performance

Shares of State Street stock traded up $1.00 during trading on Thursday, hitting $77.19. 655,044 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,213,057. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.68. State Street Co. has a 52-week low of $62.78 and a 52-week high of $81.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.08, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.52.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 19th. The asset manager reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.21. State Street had a net margin of 10.59% and a return on equity of 11.86%. The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.95 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.07 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that State Street Co. will post 7.83 EPS for the current year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. State Street’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.27%.

About State Street

State Street Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company offers investment servicing products and services, including custody, accounting, regulatory reporting, investor, and performance and analytics; middle office products, such as IBOR, transaction management, loans, cash, derivatives and collateral, record keeping, and client reporting and investment analytics; finance leasing; foreign exchange, and brokerage and other trading services; securities finance and enhanced custody products; deposit and short-term investment facilities; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; performance, risk, and compliance analytics; and financial data management to support institutional investors.