BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE:STC). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 0.75% to 3.75 million shares with purchase of 28023.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 13.83% valued currently at $160.29 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 21749.0 to 2.01 million shares. And Dimensional Fund Advisors LP has lifted its position by 7.56% or 0.1 million shares – to 1.47 million shares.
With over 0.31 million Stewart Information Services Corporation (STC) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $46.49 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $14.5 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -6.57% and its price on 01/13/23 lost nearly -1.15%. Currently, there are 27.11M common shares owned by the public and among those 26.70M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 3 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for STC have a consensus price objective of $54.50. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $55.00 and a low of $54.00. The average price target is 14.7% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 13.91% over that period. But an upside of 15.47% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $54.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 86 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 51 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 127,595 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 35 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 35,848 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Stewart Information Services Corporation are iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF, Allspring Special Small Cap Value, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF owns 1.89 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $80.62 million. Allspring Special Small Cap Value bought 18400.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 1.34 million shares valued at over $57.46 million and representing 4.96% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 2.96% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE: STC) opened at $46.73, down -$0.3 from a prior closing price of $47.03. However, the script later moved the day high at 47.01, down -1.15%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 1.48% and 5.54% over the past three months. STC shares are trading 8.80% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -40.81% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $35.96 and touched a high of $80.23 over the same period. STC has an average intraday trading volume of 195.14K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 6.50%, 10.67%, and -4.96% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE: STC) shares accounts for 94.80% of the company’s 27.11M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 4.86%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 62.30% and 30.62% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1.28B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.10. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 5.43, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $8.56. The company has a PEG of 1.09 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.33. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.32% over the week and 2.89% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Stewart Information Services Corporation (STC) will achieve an EPS of $1.37 for the current quarter, $0.77 for the next quarter and $6.14 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.31 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.42. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $2.94 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 91.30%, and -25.87% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 5.00% over the next five years, compared to 45.10% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 3 brokerage firm advisors rate Stewart Information Services Corporation (STC) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.30. Specifically, 3 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 0 of the 3 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the STC, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BTIG Research stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on February 02, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $99. Stephens coverage for the Stewart Information Services Corporation (STC) stock in a research note released on October 23, 2020 offered a Overweight rating with a price target of $55. Keefe Bruyette was of a view on July 27, 2020 that the stock is Outperform, while Keefe Bruyette gave the stock Mkt Perform rating on April 08, 2020, issuing a price target of $28. Keefe Bruyette on their part issued Underperform rating on December 09, 2019.
