32,500 Shares in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) Bought by Essential Planning LLC.

Essential Planning LLC. purchased a new position in State Street Co. (NYSE:STT) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 32,500 shares of the asset manager’s stock, valued at approximately $3,075,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of State Street by 21.2% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,296 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $422,000 after purchasing an additional 751 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its position in shares of State Street by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 18,332 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,799,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. AGF Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of State Street by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 10,065 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $988,000 after purchasing an additional 2,193 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in State Street by 90.2% in the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 11,010 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $1,081,000 after acquiring an additional 5,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sage Mountain Advisors LLC bought a new position in State Street in the fourth quarter valued at about $267,000. Institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on State Street from $142.00 to $139.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. StockNews.com cut State Street from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded State Street from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Barclays lifted their target price on State Street from $108.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded State Street from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $105.00 to $120.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $101.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other State Street news, Director Gregory L. Summe sold 10,815 shares of State Street stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.00, for a total value of $1,081,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 100,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,002,300. The trade was a 9.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Ann Fogarty sold 3,705 shares of State Street 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 sale, the executive vice president now 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

State Street Price Performance

State Street stock opened at $85.76 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $97.18 and its 200 day moving average is $94.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $24.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.44. State Street Co. has a one year low of $70.20 and a one year high of $103.00.

State Street (NYSE:STT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The asset manager reported $2.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.27 billion. State Street had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 12.14%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.04 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that State Street Co. will post 9.68 EPS for the current year.

State Street Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. State Street’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.89%.

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.