State Street (NYSE:STT) Upgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. to “Neutral” Rating

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of State Street (NYSE:STT) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $95.00 price objective on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of State Street from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on State Street from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on State Street from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of State Street from $98.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $105.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.36.

State Street Trading Up 2.9 %

NYSE:STT opened at $98.20 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $95.56 and its 200 day moving average is $86.05. State Street has a 12 month low of $70.20 and a 12 month high of $101.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.79 billion, a PE ratio of 15.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The asset manager reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.14. State Street had a return on equity of 12.02% and a net margin of 9.87%. The company had revenue of $3.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.19 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.93 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 21.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that State Street will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current year.

State Street Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. State Street’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.03%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP John Plansky sold 13,859 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.32, for a total transaction of $1,265,603.88. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,108 shares in the company, valued at $5,032,462.56. This represents a 20.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,878,784.74. This trade represents a 10.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 26,460 shares of company stock valued at $2,499,860. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On State Street

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of STT. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of State Street by 0.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,169,070 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $632,111,000 after purchasing an additional 41,442 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of State Street by 15.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,112,758 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $540,796,000 after buying an additional 833,679 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of State Street by 30.4% in 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 in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in State Street by 30.6% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 5,282,386 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $390,897,000 after acquiring an additional 1,238,251 shares during the period. Finally, Metropolis Capital Ltd boosted its stake in State Street by 3.9% during the third quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 4,286,306 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $379,209,000 after acquiring an additional 161,466 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

State Street Company 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.