Wall Street Zen Upgrades Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) to Buy

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Friday morning.

Separately, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Piper Sandler Companies from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $339.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $312.50.

Piper Sandler Companies Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PIPR opened at $351.12 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $332.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of 29.63 and a beta of 1.45. Piper Sandler Companies has a 52 week low of $202.91 and a 52 week high of $374.77.

Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The financial services provider reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99 by $0.96. The business had revenue of $405.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $349.40 million. Piper Sandler Companies had a net margin of 13.18% and a return on equity of 18.67%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.52 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Piper Sandler Companies will post 14.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Piper Sandler Companies Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were issued a $0.70 dividend. This is an increase from Piper Sandler Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. Piper Sandler Companies’s payout ratio is currently 23.63%.

Insider Activity

In other Piper Sandler Companies news, General Counsel John W. Geelan sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $322.69, for a total transaction of $645,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 12,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,080,415.05. This trade represents a 13.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Chad R. Abraham sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.71, for a total transaction of $2,589,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 53,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,337,260.18. This trade represents a 13.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 26,136 shares of company stock worth $8,380,342. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Piper Sandler Companies

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 9.8% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 694,312 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $192,977,000 after purchasing an additional 61,808 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 400,772 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $111,402,000 after purchasing an additional 9,759 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 35.0% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 357,167 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,456,000 after purchasing an additional 92,527 shares in the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 0.8% during the first quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 323,483 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $80,114,000 after purchasing an additional 2,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Piper Sandler Companies by 1.0% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $80,702,000 after purchasing an additional 2,839 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.79% of the company’s stock.

Piper Sandler Companies Company Profile

Piper Sandler Companies operates as an investment bank and institutional securities firm that serves corporations, private equity groups, public entities, non-profit entities, and institutional investors in the United States and internationally. It offers investment banking services and institutional sales, trading, and research services for various equity and fixed income products; advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt private placements, and debt and restructuring advisory; raises capital through equity and debt financings; underwrites municipal issuances; and municipal financial advisory and loan placement services, as well as various over-the-counter derivative products.