Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 12,088 Shares of State Street Co. (NYSE:STT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 334,164 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 12,088 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in State Street were worth $32,798,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new stake in shares of State Street in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Y.D. More Investments Ltd increased its holdings in State Street by 116.6% during the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 366 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Coastline Trust Co acquired a new position in State Street during the third quarter worth $44,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in State Street during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in State Street during the fourth quarter worth $56,000. Institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on STT. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $105.00 to $120.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price 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. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of State Street from $108.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of State Street from $139.00 to $132.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of State Street from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.73.

State Street Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of State Street stock opened at $98.74 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $98.55 and a 200-day moving average of $92.79. The stock has a market cap of $28.48 billion, a PE ratio of 11.98, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.43. State Street Co. has a 52-week low of $70.20 and a 52-week high of $103.00. 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 announced its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.04 earnings per share. State Street’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that State Street Co. will post 9.65 EPS for the current year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.08%. State Street’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.89%.

Insider Transactions at State Street

In other news, EVP Ann Fogarty sold 3,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.47, for a total value of $368,536.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 50,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,054,667.52. This represents a 6.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Gregory L. Summe sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $1,081,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 100,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,002,300. This represents a 9.76 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 27,020 shares of company stock valued at $2,674,661. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.