Norges Bank Takes $294.65 Million Position in Raymond James (NYSE:RJF)

Norges Bank purchased a new position in Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,896,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $294,647,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Raymond James by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,114,502 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,483,542,000 after buying an additional 2,898,242 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Raymond James in the 4th quarter valued at about $105,701,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Raymond James by 12.0% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,544,610 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $556,533,000 after acquiring an additional 488,245 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in Raymond James by 433.4% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 567,460 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,144,000 after acquiring an additional 461,069 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new stake in Raymond James during the third quarter valued at approximately $34,105,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on RJF. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Raymond James from $149.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Raymond James from $198.00 to $201.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Raymond James from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $161.00 to $185.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Raymond James from $170.00 to $177.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Raymond James from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Raymond James presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $167.55.

Raymond James Stock Down 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE RJF opened at $138.97 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $155.00 and a 200 day moving average price of $150.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $28.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.56, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.04. Raymond James has a 52-week low of $104.24 and a 52-week high of $174.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $2.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.62 by $0.31. Raymond James had a return on equity of 19.71% and a net margin of 14.06%. Sell-side analysts expect that Raymond James will post 11.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Raymond James Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. Raymond James’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.51%.

Raymond James Profile

Raymond James Financial, Inc, a financial holding company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the underwriting, distribution, trading, and brokerage of equity and debt securities, and the sale of mutual funds and other investment products in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through Private Client Group, Capital Markets, Asset Management, RJ Bank, and Other segments.