Econ Financial Services Corp Takes Position in U.S. Bancorp $USB

Econ Financial Services Corp acquired a new stake in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 35,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,586,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp in the first quarter worth about $138,183,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 1.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 141,230,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,962,742,000 after purchasing an additional 2,393,383 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 17.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 10,070,174 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $425,163,000 after purchasing an additional 1,493,318 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 192.0% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,994,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,752,000 after purchasing an additional 1,311,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 10.5% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,012,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $464,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,045,509 shares during the last quarter. 77.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America lifted their target price on U.S. Bancorp from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Raymond James Financial raised U.S. Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $52.00 price objective on U.S. Bancorp and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Chairman Andrew Cecere sold 140,445 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.34, for a total transaction of $6,508,221.30. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 1,360,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,041,584.76. This represents a 9.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP James L. Chosy sold 26,909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.86, for a total value of $1,260,955.74. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 226,375 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,607,932.50. This represents a 10.62% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

U.S. Bancorp Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE USB opened at $47.28 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $48.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. U.S. Bancorp has a 1-year low of $35.18 and a 1-year high of $53.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.82, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.06.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $7.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.17 billion. U.S. Bancorp had a return on equity of 13.34% and a net margin of 16.89%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that U.S. Bancorp will post 4.38 EPS for the current year.

U.S. Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a positive change from U.S. Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. U.S. Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

About U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities, and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates through Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.