Analysts Set Northern Trust Co. (NASDAQ:NTRS) PT at $84.21

Northern Trust Co. (NASDAQ:NTRS) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $83.09.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on NTRS shares. TheStreet upgraded Northern Trust from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, January 12th. Wolfe Research downgraded Northern Trust from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $85.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Barclays boosted their target price on Northern Trust from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Northern Trust from $72.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Northern Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $99.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Steven L. Fradkin sold 30,392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.11, for a total transaction of $2,434,703.12. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 55,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,462,687.77. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTRS. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its stake in Northern Trust by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 5,921 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $715,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Northern Trust by 26.4% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 12,985 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 2,716 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC bought a new position in Northern Trust in the first quarter worth approximately $548,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Northern Trust by 2.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,711,584 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $2,644,763,000 after purchasing an additional 457,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. grew its stake in Northern Trust by 271.7% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 918 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $107,000 after purchasing an additional 671 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.19% of the company’s stock.

Northern Trust Price Performance

Shares of Northern Trust stock opened at $83.71 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $78.73. Northern Trust has a 52 week low of $62.44 and a 52 week high of $89.25. The company has a market capitalization of $17.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.48, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 18th. The asset manager reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by ($0.81). The firm had revenue of $1.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. Northern Trust had a return on equity of 12.44% and a net margin of 9.14%. Northern Trust’s quarterly revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Northern Trust will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Northern Trust Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. Northern Trust’s dividend payout ratio is 59.06%.

Northern Trust Company Profile

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.