StockNews.com Downgrades Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) to Hold

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

SF has been the subject of several other reports. TD Cowen restated a hold rating and set a $89.00 price target (down from $94.00) on shares of Stifel Financial in a report on Monday, July 8th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Stifel Financial from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a market outperform rating and set a $88.00 price objective on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of Stifel Financial from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $83.50.

Stifel Financial Stock Performance

SF stock opened at $88.22 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $9.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.05 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $78.09. Stifel Financial has a 52 week low of $54.81 and a 52 week high of $88.60.

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

Stifel Financial Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David A. Peacock sold 13,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.90, for a total transaction of $1,038,700.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 18,646 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,489,815.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 4.57% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Stifel Financial

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Stifel Financial by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 22,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,558,000 after buying an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Stifel Financial by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Stifel Financial by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 37,765 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,611,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in Stifel Financial by 29.4% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $71,000 after buying an additional 234 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Stifel Financial by 1,818.8% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 307 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 291 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.01% of the company’s stock.

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.