Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. JMP Securities reiterated a market outperform rating and set a $88.00 price objective on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Stifel Financial from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wolfe Research cut Stifel Financial from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a hold rating and set a $89.00 price objective (down previously from $94.00) on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $83.50.

Stifel Financial Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:SF opened at $88.22 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $9.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.05 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Stifel Financial has a 1 year low of $54.81 and a 1 year high of $88.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $81.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.09.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.18 billion. Stifel Financial had a return on equity of 13.33% and a net margin of 11.59%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Stifel Financial will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Stifel Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd were given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.90%. Stifel Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Stifel Financial

In other news, Director David A. Peacock sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.90, for a total transaction of $1,038,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,646 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,489,815.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 4.57% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Stifel Financial by 3.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,461,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $817,794,000 after buying an additional 391,384 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in Stifel Financial by 7.0% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,932,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $229,199,000 after buying an additional 191,896 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Stifel Financial by 3.2% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,799,270 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $140,649,000 after buying an additional 56,570 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Stifel Financial by 12.8% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,332,258 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $104,143,000 after buying an additional 151,046 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Stifel Financial in the fourth quarter worth $84,369,000. 82.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Stifel Financial

Stifel Financial Corp., a financial services and bank holding company, provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and Other.