Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) Reaches New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

by · The Markets Daily

Northern Trust Co. (NASDAQ:NTRS – Get Free Report)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high on Friday . The company traded as high as $93.31 and last traded at $93.20, with a volume of 118071 shares. The stock had previously closed at $91.09.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Northern Trust from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $84.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Northern Trust from $92.00 to $85.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Northern Trust from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Northern Trust from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Northern Trust from $84.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Northern Trust has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.42.

View Our Latest Report on Northern Trust

Northern Trust Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $18.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.01.

Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The asset manager reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. Northern Trust had a net margin of 10.53% and a return on equity of 12.24%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 53.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.79 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Northern Trust Co. will post 7.04 EPS for the current year.

Northern Trust Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Northern Trust’s dividend payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Activity

In other Northern Trust news, EVP Teresa Parker sold 5,883 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.06, for a total transaction of $494,524.98. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 83,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,041,285.90. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Teresa Parker sold 5,883 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.06, for a total value of $494,524.98. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 83,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,041,285.90. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark C. Gossett sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.90, for a total value of $533,400.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 28,707 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,552,052.30. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,738 shares of company stock worth $1,191,388. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Northern Trust

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Northern Trust by 140.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,802,792 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $489,640,000 after purchasing an additional 3,387,002 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Northern Trust in the 1st quarter valued at about $105,665,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Northern Trust by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,413,620 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $622,596,000 after buying an additional 850,556 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Northern Trust by 4,660.5% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 399,932 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $33,586,000 after buying an additional 391,531 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in shares of Northern Trust by 3.9% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 7,046,757 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $591,787,000 after buying an additional 261,285 shares during the last quarter. 83.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Northern Trust

(Get Free Report)

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.

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