North Reef Capital Management LP Makes New Investment in Stifel Financial Corporation $SF

North Reef Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Stifel Financial Corporation (NYSE:SF) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 57,230 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,230,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 13.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,451,787 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $391,674,000 after acquiring an additional 419,038 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Stifel Financial by 94.8% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,893,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $362,368,000 after purchasing an additional 1,408,347 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Stifel Financial by 51.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,616,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $193,403,000 after purchasing an additional 890,810 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in Stifel Financial by 2.0% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,371,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $269,128,000 after purchasing an additional 45,631 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Stifel Financial by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,844,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $231,034,000 after purchasing an additional 17,008 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SF has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Stifel Financial from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Stifel Financial in a research note on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Stifel Financial from $80.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Stifel Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.67.

Stifel Financial Trading Up 1.4%

Stifel Financial stock opened at $80.70 on Friday. Stifel Financial Corporation has a 52 week low of $67.81 and a 52 week high of $89.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.44 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $76.83.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. Stifel Financial had a return on equity of 19.32% and a net margin of 16.11%.The business’s revenue was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.71 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Stifel Financial Corporation will post 6.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Stifel Financial Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Stifel Financial’s payout ratio is presently 24.33%.

About Stifel Financial

Stifel Financial Corp. is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1890, the firm has grown into a full‐service brokerage and investment banking organization serving individual investors, corporations and institutions. Through its principal subsidiary, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, the company delivers a broad array of financial products and services backed by research‐driven insights.

The firm’s main business activities are organized into two core segments: Private Client Group and Institutional Group.