Strs Ohio Increases Stock Holdings in Stifel Financial Corporation $SF

Strs Ohio lifted its position in shares of Stifel Financial Corporation (NYSE:SF) by 37.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 99,046 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,878 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Stifel Financial were worth $7,321,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SF. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Stifel Financial by 13.8% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 94.8% in 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. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Stifel Financial by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,844,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $231,034,000 after purchasing an additional 17,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Stifel Financial by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,725,806 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $216,117,000 after purchasing an additional 99,485 shares in the last quarter. 82.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SF shares. Zacks Research raised Stifel Financial from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Friday, May 29th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Stifel Financial from $100.00 to $89.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Stifel Financial from $136.00 to $92.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.15.

Stifel Financial Stock Performance

Shares of SF opened at $73.12 on Monday. Stifel Financial Corporation has a 1 year low of $67.81 and a 1 year high of $89.83. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.60. The company has a market capitalization of $11.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.23 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.51 billion. Stifel Financial had a net margin of 15.34% and a return on equity of 18.76%. Stifel Financial’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.49 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Stifel Financial Corporation will post 6.25 EPS for the current year.

Stifel Financial Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a $0.34 dividend. 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 1.9%. Stifel Financial’s payout ratio is currently 26.46%.

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.