AdvisorShares Investments LLC Invests $472,000 in St. Joe Company (The) $JOE

AdvisorShares Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of St. Joe Company (The) (NYSE:JOE) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 9,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $472,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC acquired a new stake in shares of St. Joe during the first quarter worth $263,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in St. Joe by 2.3% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 189,390 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,892,000 after purchasing an additional 4,324 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in St. Joe during the second quarter worth approximately $547,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in St. Joe by 234.7% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 20,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $967,000 after purchasing an additional 14,442 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in St. Joe in the first quarter valued at $281,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.67% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at St. Joe

In other St. Joe news, major shareholder Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 167,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.44, for a total transaction of $8,616,200.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 16,634,024 shares in the company, valued at $855,654,194.56. This represents a 1.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 616,000 shares of company stock valued at $31,340,145 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of St. Joe in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

St. Joe Trading Up 11.9%

Shares of JOE opened at $54.88 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $49.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $48.04. The stock has a market cap of $3.18 billion, a PE ratio of 30.49 and a beta of 1.31. St. Joe Company has a 12 month low of $40.19 and a 12 month high of $56.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.67 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $161.10 million for the quarter. St. Joe had a return on equity of 14.10% and a net margin of 21.40%.

St. Joe Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 13th will be paid a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. This is a positive change from St. Joe’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 13th. St. Joe’s payout ratio is presently 39.44%.

St. Joe Profile

The St. Joe Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate development, asset management, and operating company in Northwest Florida. It operates through three segments: Residential, Hospitality, and Commercial. The Residential segment engages in the development of communities into homesites for sale to homebuilders and on a limited basis to retail customers.