Wells Fargo & Company Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for State Street (NYSE:STT) Stock

State Street (NYSE:STT) had its target price boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $108.00 to $118.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the asset manager’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on STT. Evercore ISI upped their price target on State Street from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded State Street from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of State Street from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of State Street from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of State Street from $103.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, State Street has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.57.

State Street Stock Performance

State Street stock opened at $97.67 on Thursday. State Street has a fifty-two week low of $70.20 and a fifty-two week high of $101.91. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $96.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $87.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56. The stock has a market cap of $28.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.43, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.44.

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

State Street Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. State Street’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at State Street

In related news, EVP John Plansky sold 13,859 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.32, for a total transaction of $1,265,603.88. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 55,108 shares in the company, valued at $5,032,462.56. The trade was a 20.10 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.97, for a total value of $1,224,625.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now 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. Insiders have sold 26,460 shares of company stock worth $2,499,860 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On State Street

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. KBC Group NV increased its stake in State Street by 20.5% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 74,680 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,607,000 after purchasing an additional 12,707 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its stake in State Street by 17.3% in the 3rd 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. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc lifted its position in State Street by 39.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 145,859 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,794,000 after acquiring an additional 41,180 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 1,238,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of State Street by 43.8% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 68,815 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $6,069,000 after purchasing an additional 20,968 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.