Big Acquisition Will Pay Off For State Street

Article Excerpt

STATE STREET CORP. $76 (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 384.8 million; Market cap: $29.2 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) earned $1.15 a share (total $449 million) in the third quarter of 2007, up 26.3% from $0.91 a share ($358 million) a year earlier. These figures exclude restructuring costs related to State Street’s recent purchase of Investors Financial Services Corp., which provides custodial services to institutional investors. The new operations helped increase revenue 46.7%, to $2.2 billion from $1.5 billion. The company paid $4.2 billion in stock for Investors Financial. Due to the strong performance of this new operation, State Street now feels the extra shares will cut its 2007 earnings by $0.06 a share, or 50% less than its original estimate. State Street came under pressure in August due to its exposure to off-balance sheet entities called “conduits”, which trade assetbacked securities. However, these conduit assets are less risky than subprime mortgage loans, so the stock quickly…