Raymond James Financial Inc. Acquires Shares of 449,008 State Street Co. (NYSE:STT)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 449,008 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $44,070,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.15% of State Street as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of STT. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of State Street by 1.2% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 346,252 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $30,633,000 after buying an additional 4,052 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of State Street by 4.0% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 5,193 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $459,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of State Street by 2.5% in the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,912 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $877,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in shares of State Street in the third quarter worth $2,402,000. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of State Street by 19.4% in the third quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 28,014 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,476,000 after buying an additional 4,556 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on STT. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of State Street from $142.00 to $139.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of State Street from $106.00 to $104.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of State Street from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of State Street from $108.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of State Street from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $101.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Ann Fogarty sold 3,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.47, for a total value of $368,536.35. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 50,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,054,667.52. This represents a 6.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total transaction of $1,081,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 100,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,002,300. The trade was a 9.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

State Street Stock Performance

Shares of STT opened at $85.79 on Wednesday. State Street Co. has a 1 year low of $70.20 and a 1 year high of $103.00. The company has a market cap of $24.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $97.43 and a 200-day moving average of $94.15.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.27 billion. State Street had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 12.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.04 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that State Street Co. will post 9.68 earnings per share for the current year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. State Street’s payout ratio is currently 36.89%.

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.