Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Invests $406,000 in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,137 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $406,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Adero Partners LLC lifted its position in State Street by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 2,900 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its position in State Street by 2.0% during the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 5,283 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $467,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in State Street by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,050 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $986,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in State Street by 1.4% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 11,268 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $997,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the period. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lifted its position in State Street by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 2,869 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $282,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of State Street from $139.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of State Street from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of State Street from $108.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of State Street from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of State Street from $108.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.73.

Insider Activity at State Street

In other news, EVP Ann Fogarty sold 3,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.47, for a total value of $368,536.35. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,054,667.52. This represents a 6.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 111,042 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,878,784.74. This represents a 10.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 27,020 shares of company stock valued at $2,674,661. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

State Street Stock Down 0.9 %

STT stock opened at $98.74 on Friday. State Street Co. has a 52 week low of $70.20 and a 52 week high of $103.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $92.90.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.31. State Street had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.04 EPS. State Street’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that State Street Co. will post 9.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. State Street’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.89%.

State Street Profile

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.