State Street (STT) Competitors

Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) and State Street (NYSE:STT) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, earnings, dividends, risk, media sentiment, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, NTRS or STT?

State Street has higher revenue and earnings than Northern Trust. State Street is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Northern Trust, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Northern Trust	$12.12B	1.39	$1.11B	$4.53	18.20
State Street	$18.37B	1.22	$1.94B	$5.34	13.98

Which has more volatility and risk, NTRS or STT?

Northern Trust has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, State Street has a beta of 1.52, meaning that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in NTRS or STT?

83.2% of Northern Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.4% of State Street shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Northern Trust shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of State Street shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Is NTRS or STT more profitable?

State Street has a net margin of 9.62% compared to State Street's net margin of 7.59%. State Street's return on equity of 12.57% beat Northern Trust's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Northern Trust	7.59%	12.57%	0.91%
State Street	9.62%	12.03%	0.87%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in NTRS or STT?

State Street received 269 more outperform votes than Northern Trust when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 56.50% of users gave State Street an outperform vote while only 41.79% of users gave Northern Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Northern Trust	Outperform Votes 392 41.79%	Underperform Votes 546 58.21%
State Street	Outperform Votes 661 56.50%	Underperform Votes 509 43.50%

Does the media refer more to NTRS or STT?

In the previous week, Northern Trust had 4 more articles in the media than State Street. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for Northern Trust and 5 mentions for State Street. Northern Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.46 beat State Street's score of 1.20 indicating that State Street is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Northern Trust	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
State Street	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer NTRS or STT?

Northern Trust currently has a consensus target price of $84.92, suggesting a potential upside of 3.02%. State Street has a consensus target price of $84.04, suggesting a potential upside of 12.38%. Given Northern Trust's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe State Street is more favorable than Northern Trust.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Northern Trust	2 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.10
State Street	2 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.27

Is NTRS or STT a better dividend stock?

Northern Trust pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. State Street pays an annual dividend of $2.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Northern Trust pays out 66.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. State Street pays out 51.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Northern Trust has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and State Street has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. State Street is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

State Street beats Northern Trust on 15 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.