Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. Acquires 674 Shares of Raymond James (NYSE:RJF)

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 29,494 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 674 shares during the quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Raymond James were worth $4,581,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Raymond James by 1.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 568,070 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,940,000 after buying an additional 9,217 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Raymond James by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 473,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $57,941,000 after purchasing an additional 7,028 shares during the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in Raymond James during the third quarter valued at about $3,561,000. XTX Topco Ltd grew its stake in Raymond James by 390.7% in the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 8,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,032,000 after purchasing an additional 6,649 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its holdings in Raymond James by 109.3% in the second quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 111,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,778,000 after purchasing an additional 58,200 shares in the last quarter. 83.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Raymond James from $146.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Raymond James from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Raymond James from $132.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Raymond James from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on Raymond James from $136.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Raymond James currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.09.

Raymond James Stock Up 3.1 %

RJF stock opened at $161.55 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 1.02. Raymond James has a 12 month low of $104.24 and a 12 month high of $171.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $160.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.00.

Raymond James (NYSE:RJF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.54. The company had revenue of $3.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.32 billion. Raymond James had a net margin of 13.86% and a return on equity of 19.30%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.13 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Raymond James will post 10.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Raymond James Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. This is an increase from Raymond James’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. Raymond James’s payout ratio is presently 20.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Paul C. Reilly sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $167.30, for a total value of $8,365,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 283,110 shares in the company, valued at $47,364,303. The trade was a 15.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Tashtego S. Elwyn sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.47, for a total transaction of $1,594,700.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 32,688 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,212,755.36. This represents a 23.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 64,621 shares of company stock worth $10,729,488. Corporate insiders own 0.54% of the company’s stock.

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.