Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. Purchases Shares of 23,408 U.S. Bancorp $USB

Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. acquired a new position in shares of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 23,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,249,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp during the second quarter worth $971,285,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 3,451.9% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,332,659 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $231,191,000 after purchasing an additional 4,210,676 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 1,589.4% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,472,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $157,119,000 after purchasing an additional 3,266,724 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in U.S. Bancorp by 354.5% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,855,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $129,205,000 after purchasing an additional 2,227,103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in U.S. Bancorp by 16.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 11,598,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $560,559,000 after purchasing an additional 1,631,550 shares in the last quarter. 77.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

USB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, U.S. Bancorp presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.02.

Insider Transactions at U.S. Bancorp

In other U.S. Bancorp news, insider Mark G. Runkel sold 32,195 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.65, for a total transaction of $1,952,626.75. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 97,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,927,203.20. This represents a 24.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

U.S. Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of USB opened at $51.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $79.90 billion, a PE ratio of 11.14, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $55.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.73. U.S. Bancorp has a twelve month low of $35.18 and a twelve month high of $61.19.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 20th. The financial services provider reported $1.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.19 by $0.07. U.S. Bancorp had a net margin of 17.66% and a return on equity of 13.48%. The company had revenue of $7.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.07 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that U.S. Bancorp will post 4.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

U.S. Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. U.S. Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.02%.

About U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) is a bank holding company and the parent of U.S. Bank, a national commercial bank that provides a wide range of banking, investment, mortgage, trust and payment services. The company operates through consumer and business banking, commercial banking, payment services, and wealth management segments. Its product set includes deposit accounts, consumer and commercial lending, mortgage origination and servicing, credit and debit card services, treasury and cash management, merchant processing, and institutional and trust services.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.