Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.30 EPS

Northern Trust (NASDAQ:NTRS) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The asset manager reported $2.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.30, Zacks reports. Northern Trust had a net margin of 10.92% and a return on equity of 12.75%.

Northern Trust Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTRS opened at $110.67 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $105.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $96.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.71 and a quick ratio of 0.71. Northern Trust has a 1 year low of $76.67 and a 1 year high of $111.87. The company has a market capitalization of $21.94 billion, a PE ratio of 13.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.08.

Insider Activity

In related news, Vice Chairman Steven L. Fradkin sold 9,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $111.00, for a total value of $1,010,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 47,797 shares in the company, valued at $5,305,467. This represents a 15.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Teresa Parker sold 4,439 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $100.86, for a total transaction of $447,717.54. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 79,326 shares in the company, valued at $8,000,820.36. The trade was a 5.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 82,151 shares of company stock valued at $8,489,889. Insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on NTRS shares. StockNews.com lowered Northern Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Northern Trust from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $84.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Northern Trust from $86.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Northern Trust from $108.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Northern Trust from $100.00 to $107.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $107.17.

About Northern Trust

Northern Trust Corporation, a financial holding company, provides wealth management, asset servicing, asset management, and banking solutions for corporations, institutions, families, and individuals worldwide. It operates in two segments, Asset Servicing and Wealth Management. The Asset Servicing segment offers asset servicing and related services, including custody, fund administration, investment operations outsourcing, investment management, investment risk and analytical services, employee benefit services, securities lending, foreign exchange, treasury management, brokerage services, transition management services, banking, and cash management services.