Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $958,000 Position in KeyCorp $KEY

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 47,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $958,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in KEY. Maseco LLP purchased a new stake in KeyCorp during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in shares of KeyCorp in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. GoalVest Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of KeyCorp in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Smithfield Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of KeyCorp during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Kelleher Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of KeyCorp during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.69% of the company’s stock.

KeyCorp Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of KEY stock opened at $22.99 on Monday. KeyCorp has a twelve month low of $16.47 and a twelve month high of $23.72. The stock has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $21.99 and a 200 day moving average of $21.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. KeyCorp had a return on equity of 10.80% and a net margin of 17.03%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that KeyCorp will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

KeyCorp announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, May 13th that permits the company to buyback $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 13% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

KeyCorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 2nd were paid a $0.205 dividend. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 2nd. KeyCorp’s payout ratio is currently 50.31%.

Insider Transactions at KeyCorp

In related news, insider Angela G. Mago sold 22,826 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.66, for a total transaction of $494,411.16. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 281,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,098,676.24. This represents a 7.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on KEY shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of KeyCorp from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of KeyCorp in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of KeyCorp from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of KeyCorp from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of KeyCorp from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.55.

KeyCorp Company Profile

KeyCorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, that operates through its primary banking subsidiary, KeyBank. It provides a broad range of banking and financial services to individual consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies and large corporations. KeyBank’s offerings span traditional deposit and lending products as well as more specialized financial solutions designed for commercial and institutional clients.

The company’s product and service mix includes retail banking products such as checking and savings accounts, consumer and residential mortgage lending, and auto financing.