Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) Raised to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY - Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

Separately, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Korn Ferry from $84.00 to $80.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th.

Korn Ferry Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of KFY stock traded up $0.42 on Friday, hitting $68.28. The stock had a trading volume of 229,379 shares, compared to its average volume of 376,236. The company's 50 day moving average price is $64.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.00. Korn Ferry has a 1 year low of $59.23 and a 1 year high of $80.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.59 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07.

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 11th. The business services provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.06. Korn Ferry had a return on equity of 14.27% and a net margin of 9.03%. The firm had revenue of $676.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $650.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. Korn Ferry's revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Korn Ferry will post 4.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Korn Ferry Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 27th were given a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 27th. This is a boost from Korn Ferry's previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.81%. Korn Ferry's dividend payout ratio is 41.29%.

Institutional Trading of Korn Ferry

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in KFY. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Korn Ferry by 75.9% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 517 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. CX Institutional acquired a new stake in shares of Korn Ferry in the 1st quarter valued at about $39,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Korn Ferry in the 1st quarter valued at about $62,000. Wealthfront Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Korn Ferry during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Korn Ferry by 230.4% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,381 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $93,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares during the last quarter. 98.82% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry, together with its subsidiaries, provides organizational consulting services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consulting, Digital, Executive Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) & Professional Search. The company provides executive search services to recruit board level, chief executive, other senior executive, and general management talent of organizations.