St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

St. Joe Company (The) (NYSE:JOE) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $73.54 and last traded at $72.02, with a volume of 174499 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $72.79.

Key Stories Impacting St. Joe

Here are the key news stories impacting St. Joe this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company fundamentals/dividend: St. Joe recently reported solid Q4 results and management commentary signaling continued development and sales momentum; the company also declared a quarterly dividend (annualized $0.64, ex‑dividend date Mar. 9) that supports income investors and reflects healthy free‑cash expectations. MarketBeat: JOE overview (earnings & dividend)
• Positive Sentiment: Management commentary / growth signal: Earnings‑call coverage summarized by third parties highlights continued progress on St. Joe’s development pipeline and execution, which could underpin medium‑term revenue and margin expansion for a land/development play. TipRanks: Earnings call summary
• Neutral Sentiment: Third‑party comparison/analysis: An analyst blog compared St. Joe to peer Berkeley Group — useful for relative valuation checks but not a company‑specific catalyst. AmericanBankingNews analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Local / community press unrelated to the firm: Several local news items (city council actions in St. Joseph, MO; community events and sports) reference “St. Joseph” or “St. Joe” but are not about The St. Joe Company (real estate firm in Florida) and are unlikely to affect the stock materially. KQ2: St. Joseph Missouri item Yahoo: City Council postpones ordinance
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling by major shareholder: Bruce R. Berkowitz disclosed multiple small sales between Feb. 27 and Mar. 3 (totaling roughly 39,000 shares across filings), trimming a very large stake by a fractional amount. Even modest sales by a high‑profile >10% holder can create short‑term downward pressure or signal portfolio rebalancing to some investors. InsiderTrades: Berkowitz sales alert

Analyst Ratings Changes

JOE has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of St. Joe from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of St. Joe in a research report on Monday, December 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, St. Joe presently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

St. Joe Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.01 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 2.68 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.23.

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $128.89 million for the quarter. St. Joe had a return on equity of 15.23% and a net margin of 22.52%.

St. Joe Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. St. Joe’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.00%.

Insider Activity at St. Joe

In related news, major shareholder Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 87,700 shares of St. Joe stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.51, for a total transaction of $5,745,227.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 16,165,024 shares in the company, valued at $1,058,970,722.24. This trade represents a 0.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 228,500 shares of company stock valued at $15,098,427. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On St. Joe

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in shares of St. Joe by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 29,915 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,404,000 after purchasing an additional 1,384 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in St. Joe by 152.4% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 76,084 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,572,000 after buying an additional 45,939 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of St. Joe by 4.6% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 21,459 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,008,000 after acquiring an additional 951 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of St. Joe by 29.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 87,606 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,113,000 after acquiring an additional 19,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of St. Joe by 45.8% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 26,218 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,231,000 after acquiring an additional 8,235 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) is a leading real estate development and asset management firm focused on Northwest Florida. Headquartered in Jacksonville, the company owns and manages approximately 171,000 acres of land across Bay, Gulf, Franklin and Walton counties. St. Joe’s core businesses include residential community development, commercial real estate, and hospitality, with an emphasis on master-planned neighborhoods, office and retail campuses, resort hotels and mixed-use town centers.

Founded in 1936 as a paper manufacturing company, St.