Northern Trust Corporation $NTRS Shares Sold by Pallas Capital Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Pallas Capital Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Northern Trust Corporation by 29.9%, selling 1,973 shares and bringing its holding to 4,634 shares valued at $588,000.
• Several hedge funds made significant adjustments to their positions in Northern Trust during the fourth quarter, with notable increases in holdings by Toronto Dominion Bank and Sunbelt Securities Inc.
• Northern Trust announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.80 per share, up from $0.75, representing an annualized yield of 2.4%.

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS - Free Report) by 29.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,634 shares of the asset manager's stock after selling 1,973 shares during the quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC's holdings in Northern Trust were worth $588,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Northern Trust by 47.8% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,810,816 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $178,637,000 after buying an additional 585,992 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Northern Trust by 4.9% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,850,088 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $774,411,000 after buying an additional 363,472 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Northern Trust by 8.4% in the first quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 84,974 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $8,383,000 after buying an additional 6,570 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in shares of Northern Trust by 529.4% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 461,383 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $45,515,000 after buying an additional 388,081 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Northern Trust by 96.7% during the 1st quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 5,239 shares of the asset manager's stock worth $517,000 after acquiring an additional 2,575 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.19% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Northern Trust from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $123.00 target price on shares of Northern Trust and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Northern Trust from $108.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an "in-line" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Northern Trust from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Northern Trust from $128.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Northern Trust has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $119.58.

Northern Trust Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NTRS traded down $1.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $130.65. 241,256 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,525,285. Northern Trust Corporation has a 12-month low of $81.62 and a 12-month high of $133.70. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $128.43 and its 200 day moving average price is $112.68. The firm has a market cap of $24.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.36, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The asset manager reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Northern Trust had a net margin of 11.75% and a return on equity of 14.06%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 26.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.34 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Northern Trust Corporation will post 8.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Northern Trust Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This is an increase from Northern Trust's previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Northern Trust's payout ratio is 37.60%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Robert Edward Jr. Moritz bought 256 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $126.34 per share, with a total value of $32,343.04. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 2,525 shares of the company's stock, valued at $319,008.50. The trade was a 11.28% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.77% of the company's stock.

Northern Trust 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.