AIA Group Ltd Has $726,000 Holdings in Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF)

AIA Group Ltd increased its holdings in Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) by 149.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,289 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Stifel Financial were worth $726,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Stifel Financial by 113,703.2% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,654,257 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $621,889,000 after buying an additional 10,644,895 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Stifel Financial by 422.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,120,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $182,123,000 after buying an additional 2,522,805 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Stifel Financial by 187.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,220,791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $136,445,000 after buying an additional 1,448,068 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Stifel Financial in the 4th quarter valued at about $60,421,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Stifel Financial by 77.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,183,721 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $72,728,000 after buying an additional 518,163 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.01% of the company’s stock.

Stifel Financial Stock Up 0.6 %

SF opened at $75.31 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $75.77 and a 200 day moving average of $68.70. The company has a market cap of $7.74 billion, a PE ratio of 17.60 and a beta of 1.18. Stifel Financial Corp. has a 12 month low of $54.81 and a 12 month high of $78.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $1.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Stifel Financial had a net margin of 11.60% and a return on equity of 12.32%. Stifel Financial’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.58 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Stifel Financial Corp. will post 7.04 EPS for the current year.

Stifel Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This is an increase from Stifel Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. Stifel Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Stifel Financial news, SVP Thomas B. Michaud sold 25,421 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.26, for a total value of $1,887,763.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 90,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,687,484.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Stifel Financial news, SVP Thomas B. Michaud sold 25,421 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.26, for a total value of $1,887,763.46. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 90,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,687,484.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Victor Nesi sold 36,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.37, for a total transaction of $2,713,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 54,732 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,125,150.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of Stifel Financial from $86.50 to $92.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $88.00 price target on shares of Stifel Financial in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Stifel Financial from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Stifel Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Stifel Financial from $74.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.50.

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.