Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. Reduces Holdings in Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY)

Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lessened its holdings in Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) by 3.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,207 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 197 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Korn Ferry were worth $342,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Korn Ferry during the fourth quarter valued at about $53,304,000. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new position in shares of Korn Ferry in the first quarter valued at approximately $52,948,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Korn Ferry in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,347,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Korn Ferry by 1,069.5% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 569,154 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $33,779,000 after buying an additional 520,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Korn Ferry by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,354,443 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $417,868,000 after buying an additional 134,209 shares during the period. 98.82% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Korn Ferry Stock Performance

Shares of Korn Ferry stock opened at $70.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.94 and a beta of 1.54. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.79 and a quick ratio of 1.83. Korn Ferry has a 12 month low of $44.45 and a 12 month high of $72.52.

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 13th. The business services provider reported $1.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.13. Korn Ferry had a return on equity of 13.18% and a net margin of 6.05%. The company had revenue of $690.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $687.36 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Korn Ferry will post 4.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Korn Ferry Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.37 dividend. This is a boost from Korn Ferry’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd. Korn Ferry’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.96%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on KFY. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 target price (up from $74.00) on shares of Korn Ferry in a report on Friday, June 14th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Korn Ferry from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Korn Ferry from $72.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Korn Ferry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.00.

Insider Transactions at Korn Ferry

In other Korn Ferry news, CEO Mark Arian sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.01, for a total transaction of $330,050.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 91,484 shares in the company, valued at $6,038,858.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Korn Ferry Profile

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.