Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. Buys New Position in Stifel Financial Corporation $SF

Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Stifel Financial Corporation (NYSE:SF) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 34,713 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,422,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 430.4% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 73,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,470,000 after acquiring an additional 60,042 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its stake in shares of Stifel Financial by 49.9% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 38,209 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,824,000 after purchasing an additional 12,727 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Stifel Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,031,197,000. Heartland Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 56.3% during the 1st quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 134,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,917,000 after purchasing an additional 48,346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in Stifel Financial by 43.0% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 143,081 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,578,000 after purchasing an additional 43,036 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on SF shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Stifel Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 9th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Stifel Financial in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Stifel Financial from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Stifel Financial from $80.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.90.

Stifel Financial Trading Down 1.3%

NYSE SF opened at $79.72 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Stifel Financial Corporation has a 52 week low of $67.81 and a 52 week high of $89.83. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $78.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.37. The company has a market cap of $12.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.27 and a beta of 0.99.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.09. Stifel Financial had a return on equity of 19.22% and a net margin of 16.11%.The company had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.71 EPS. Stifel Financial’s quarterly revenue was up 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Stifel Financial Corporation will post 6.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Stifel Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. Stifel Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.33%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Maryam S. Brown sold 4,700 shares of Stifel Financial stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.20, for a total transaction of $372,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,729 shares in the company, valued at $453,736.80. This trade represents a 45.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Stifel Financial Profile

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.