STATE STREET CORP. $73 (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 415.2 million; Market cap: $30.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to large investors, like mutual funds and pension plans.
State Street has raised its quarterly dividend by 13.3%, to $0.34 a share from $0.30. The new annual rate of $1.36 yields 1.9%. State Street also plans to repurchase $1.8 billion worth of its shares by June 30, 2016. It spent $1.65 billion on buybacks in 2014.
The company’s fee income rises and falls with the value of the mutual funds and other securities it manages. Thanks to improving stock markets and new contracts, it will likely earn $5.16 a share in 2015, up from $5.09 in 2014. The stock trades at 14.1 times that forecast.
State Street is a buy.