Geode Capital Management LLC Buys 184,726 Shares of Northern Trust Corporation $NTRS

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS) by 3.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,196,659 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 184,726 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Northern Trust were worth $656,229,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Northern Trust by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,443,599 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $339,711,000 after acquiring an additional 558,287 shares in the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Northern Trust during the first quarter valued at about $41,905,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Northern Trust during the first quarter worth about $41,834,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in Northern Trust by 529.4% in the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 461,383 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $45,515,000 after purchasing an additional 388,081 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new stake in Northern Trust in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,186,000. Institutional investors own 83.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on NTRS shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Northern Trust from $127.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. TD Cowen raised their target price on Northern Trust from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $135.00 target price on Northern Trust in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Northern Trust from $123.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Northern Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Northern Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Susan Cohen Levy sold 27,591 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.13, for a total transaction of $3,535,234.83. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 48,257 shares in the company, valued at $6,183,169.41. This represents a 36.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert Edward Jr. Moritz acquired 3,891 shares of Northern Trust stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $128.57 per share, with a total value of $500,265.87. Following the purchase, the director owned 6,686 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $859,619.02. This represents a 139.21% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.77% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Northern Trust Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Northern Trust stock opened at $127.39 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.32. Northern Trust Corporation has a 52-week low of $81.62 and a 52-week high of $135.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.70. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $129.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.13.

Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The asset manager reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.03. Northern Trust had a net margin of 11.99% and a return on equity of 14.37%. The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.22 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Northern Trust Corporation will post 8.27 EPS for the current year.

Northern Trust Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Northern Trust’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.30%.

Northern Trust Company Profile

Northern Trust Corporation, a financial holding company, provides wealth management, asset servicing, asset management, and banking solutions for corporations, institutions, families, and individuals worldwide. It operates in two segments, Asset Servicing and Wealth Management. The Asset Servicing segment offers asset servicing and related services, including custody, fund administration, investment operations outsourcing, investment management, investment risk and analytical services, employee benefit services, securities lending, foreign exchange, treasury management, brokerage services, transition management services, banking, and cash management services.