JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades State Street (NYSE:STT) to Neutral

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of State Street (NYSE:STT - Free Report) from an underweight rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $95.00 price objective on the asset manager's stock.

STT has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on State Street from $106.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised State Street from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $105.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of State Street from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $102.00 to $139.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of State Street from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of State Street from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, State Street presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $98.36.

State Street Stock Performance

STT stock traded up $2.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $98.20. The company had a trading volume of 6,620,027 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,235,194. State Street has a one year low of $70.20 and a one year high of $101.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $95.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $85.89.

State Street (NYSE:STT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The asset manager reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $3.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.19 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.93 EPS. State Street's quarterly revenue was up 21.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that State Street will post 8.42 EPS for the current year.

State Street Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at State Street

In other news, EVP Kathryn M. Horgan sold 12,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 111,042 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,878,784.74. This trade represents a 10.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP John Plansky sold 13,859 shares of the 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,032,462.56. This trade represents a 20.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 26,460 shares of company stock worth $2,499,860. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of State Street

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in State Street in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new stake in State Street in the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of State Street during the third quarter valued at $54,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of State Street in the 2nd quarter valued at $61,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of State Street by 202.7% in the 2nd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 993 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares during the last quarter. 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.