Kentucky Trust Co Acquires New Position in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT)

Kentucky Trust Co acquired a new stake in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 1,270 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $125,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC acquired a new position in State Street during the fourth quarter worth about $272,000. KBC Group NV raised its position in State Street by 20.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 74,680 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $6,607,000 after acquiring an additional 12,707 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in State Street by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 74,268 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $7,289,000 after acquiring an additional 7,446 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in State Street during the fourth quarter worth about $395,000. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its position in State Street by 17.3% during the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 137,040 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $12,124,000 after acquiring an additional 20,183 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

State Street Price Performance

State Street stock opened at $98.23 on Thursday. State Street Co. has a 1 year low of $70.20 and a 1 year high of $103.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $98.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.01. The company has a market cap of $28.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.92, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $3.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.04 earnings per share. State Street’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that State Street Co. will post 9.6 earnings per share for the current year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.09%. State Street’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.89%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other State Street news, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on STT shares. Morgan Stanley cut 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $105.00 to $120.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of State Street from $108.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of State Street from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of State Street from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.73.

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.