StockNews.com Upgrades Federated Hermes (NYSE:FHI) to Strong-Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Federated Hermes (NYSE:FHI) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Federated Hermes from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Federated Hermes from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Federated Hermes from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. TD Cowen raised shares of Federated Hermes from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $35.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Federated Hermes from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.33.

Federated Hermes Stock Performance

FHI opened at $41.71 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.41, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.15. Federated Hermes has a fifty-two week low of $31.08 and a fifty-two week high of $42.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.75. The company has a fifty day moving average of $38.53 and a 200 day moving average of $35.09.

Federated Hermes (NYSE:FHI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $408.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $410.26 million. Federated Hermes had a return on equity of 29.85% and a net margin of 16.62%. The business’s revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Federated Hermes will post 3.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Federated Hermes Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Federated Hermes’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Federated Hermes news, CEO Saker Anwar Nusseibeh sold 12,152 shares of Federated Hermes stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.86, for a total transaction of $484,378.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 179,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,138,766.56. The trade was a 6.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Paul A. Uhlman sold 6,311 shares of Federated Hermes stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.39, for a total value of $261,212.29. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 310,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,862,646.13. The trade was a 1.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,280 shares of company stock valued at $1,185,871 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Federated Hermes

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Federated Hermes by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,577,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,826,000 after purchasing an additional 45,214 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Federated Hermes by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,666,335 shares of the company’s stock valued at $208,351,000 after acquiring an additional 137,245 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Federated Hermes by 88.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,689,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,866,000 after acquiring an additional 1,261,097 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Federated Hermes by 8.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,250,182 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,982,000 after purchasing an additional 92,643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in Federated Hermes by 39.8% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,142,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,555,000 after buying an additional 324,958 shares during the last quarter. 75.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Federated Hermes Company Profile

Federated Hermes, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to individuals, including high net worth individuals, banking or thrift institutions, investment companies, pension and profit sharing plans, pooled investment vehicles, charitable organizations, state or municipal government entities, and registered investment advisors.