American Century Companies Inc. Decreases Holdings in Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF)

American Century Companies Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE:SF) by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 160,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 25,860 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Stifel Financial were worth $13,500,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of SF. SageView Advisory Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Stifel Financial during the 1st quarter valued at $1,251,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Stifel Financial in the second quarter valued at about $1,543,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Stifel Financial in the fourth quarter valued at about $649,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Stifel Financial by 36.5% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 35,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,742,000 after purchasing an additional 9,384 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Stifel Financial by 268.6% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 8,798 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $688,000 after purchasing an additional 6,411 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on SF. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Stifel Financial in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $101.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Stifel Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Wolfe Research downgraded Stifel Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Stifel Financial in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on Stifel Financial from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Stifel Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.40.

Stifel Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Stifel Financial stock opened at $92.47 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $85.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.84. Stifel Financial Corp. has a one year low of $54.81 and a one year high of $92.98. The company has a market capitalization of $9.47 billion, a PE ratio of 21.02 and a beta of 1.09.

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.22 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.18 billion. Stifel Financial had a return on equity of 13.24% and a net margin of 11.59%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. Research analysts expect that Stifel Financial Corp. will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Stifel Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.42 per share. This represents a $1.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.18%.

Stifel Financial Profile

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.