Topic: Growth Stocks

Three Finance stocks: 2 holds & 1 buy – STATE STREET CORP., T. ROWE PRICE GROUP INC. and H&R BLOCK INC.

Article Excerpt

STATE STREET CORP. $41 (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 501.9 million; Market cap: $20.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 0.1%; WSSF Rating: Extra Risk) provides accounting and other services to mutual funds and pension plans. In the three months ended September 30, 2010, State Street earned $1.08 a share. That’s up 63.6% from $0.66 a year earlier. If you exclude unusual items, such as gains on sales of securities State Street had previously written down, earnings per share would have risen 21.1%, to $0.86 from $0.71. Revenue rose 8.4%, to $2.2 billion from $2.0 billion. In 2009, State Street bought two firms in Europe. That pushed up the company’s custody-fee revenue by 18.7% in the latest quarter. However, despite rising stock markets, fees from managing its clients’investments fell 2.7%. That’s because its customers held more bonds during the quarter, and the company earns lower fees from managing bonds than stocks. State Street is…