StockNews.com Upgrades Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning.

Separately, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Korn Ferry from $78.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Korn Ferry presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.00.

Korn Ferry Price Performance

KFY opened at $66.60 on Tuesday. Korn Ferry has a fifty-two week low of $54.77 and a fifty-two week high of $80.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.07. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $73.70 and a 200 day moving average of $70.94. The firm has a market cap of $3.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.23 and a beta of 1.56.

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The business services provider reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.21. The business had revenue of $682.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $675.35 million. Korn Ferry had a return on equity of 14.27% and a net margin of 9.03%. The firm’s revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Korn Ferry will post 4.75 EPS for the current year.

Korn Ferry Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be paid a $0.37 dividend. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 20th. Korn Ferry’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Korn Ferry

In other news, CEO Gary D. Burnison sold 16,274 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.05, for a total value of $1,205,089.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 356,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,424,298.20. The trade was a 4.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Michael Distefano sold 5,000 shares of Korn Ferry stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.36, for a total value of $361,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 50,954 shares in the company, valued at $3,687,031.44. This trade represents a 8.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,280 shares of company stock worth $6,193,956 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Korn Ferry

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Korn Ferry by 1.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,281,186 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $220,296,000 after buying an additional 48,993 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Korn Ferry by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,069,906 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $156,503,000 after acquiring an additional 40,240 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Korn Ferry during the third quarter valued at about $103,546,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Korn Ferry by 2.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,217,031 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $91,587,000 after acquiring an additional 28,014 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Korn Ferry by 13.2% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 988,005 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $74,337,000 after purchasing an additional 115,523 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.82% of the company’s stock.

About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, provides organizational consulting services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consulting, Digital, Executive Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) & Professional Search. The company provides executive search services to recruit board level, chief executive, other senior executive, and general management talent of organizations.