State Street (NYSE:STT) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of State Street (NYSE:STT) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on State Street from $139.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $103.00 price objective (down from $104.00) on shares of State Street in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $105.00 to $120.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded State Street from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on State Street from $108.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.73.

State Street Price Performance

NYSE:STT opened at $99.16 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.03, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.43. State Street has a 1 year low of $70.20 and a 1 year high of $103.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.56.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.31. State Street had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 12.14%. The firm had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.27 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.04 EPS. State Street’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that State Street will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.

State Street Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. State Street’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.97, for a total transaction of $1,224,625.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 111,042 shares in the company, valued at $10,878,784.74. The trade was a 10.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in STT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in State Street during the 4th quarter worth about $161,021,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in State Street by 236.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,309,130 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $226,642,000 after acquiring an additional 1,622,408 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lifted its position in State Street by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,811,415 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $514,136,000 after acquiring an additional 1,354,560 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in State Street by 14.2% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,983,607 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $685,441,000 after acquiring an additional 870,849 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in State Street by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,148,410 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $407,166,000 after acquiring an additional 563,790 shares during the period. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.