Morningstar Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Position in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT)

Morningstar Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT - Free Report) by 50.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,652 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 3,780 shares during the quarter. Morningstar Investment Management LLC's holdings in State Street were worth $358,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in STT. Adero Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of State Street by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 2,900 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $285,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of State Street by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 5,283 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $467,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in State Street by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,050 shares of the asset manager's stock valued at $986,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC increased its stake in shares of State Street by 1.4% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. Finally, ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of State Street by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 2,869 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.44% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded State Street from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised State Street from an "underweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $95.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com cut State Street from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $103.00 price objective (down from $104.00) on shares of State Street in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on State Street from $139.00 to $132.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, State Street currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $100.73.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Ann Fogarty sold 3,705 shares of State Street stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.47, for a total transaction of $368,536.35. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 50,816 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,054,667.52. The trade was a 6.80 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible 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 stock was sold at an average price of $97.97, for a total value of $1,224,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 111,042 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,878,784.74. The trade was a 10.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,020 shares of company stock worth $2,674,661 in the last ninety days. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

State Street Price Performance

Shares of STT traded down $0.91 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $98.74. 1,808,387 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,973,938. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $98.58 and a 200-day moving average of $92.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.56. State Street Co. has a one year low of $70.20 and a one year high of $103.00. The firm has a market cap of $28.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.98, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.43.

State Street (NYSE:STT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.31. The firm 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 business's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.04 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that State Street Co. will post 9.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

State Street Dividend Announcement

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