Groupe la Francaise Takes $549,000 Position in St. Joe Company (The) $JOE

Groupe la Francaise purchased a new position in St. Joe Company (The) (NYSE:JOE) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 8,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $549,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in St. Joe by 7,372.6% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,634,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $165,020,000 after acquiring an additional 2,599,584 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new stake in shares of St. Joe during the second quarter worth $158,000. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of St. Joe during the second quarter worth $209,000. Corient Private Wealth LP purchased a new stake in shares of St. Joe during the second quarter valued at $648,000. Finally, Punch & Associates Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of St. Joe during the second quarter valued at $23,603,000. 86.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

St. Joe Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of NYSE JOE opened at $64.28 on Wednesday. St. Joe Company has a 52-week low of $46.37 and a 52-week high of $73.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.04 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $64.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 1.84.

St. Joe (NYSE:JOE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $158.86 million for the quarter. St. Joe had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 22.45%.

St. Joe Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 21st will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 21st. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. St. Joe’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.91%.

Insider Activity at St. Joe

In other St. Joe news, major shareholder Bruce Berkowitz sold 140,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.71, for a total transaction of $9,225,684.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 15,073,624 shares in the company, valued at $990,487,833.04. This represents a 0.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 325,100 shares of company stock worth $21,303,513 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of St. Joe from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

About St. Joe

The St. Joe Company (NYSE: JOE) is a leading real estate development and asset management firm focused on Northwest Florida. Headquartered in Jacksonville, the company owns and manages approximately 171,000 acres of land across Bay, Gulf, Franklin and Walton counties. St. Joe’s core businesses include residential community development, commercial real estate, and hospitality, with an emphasis on master-planned neighborhoods, office and retail campuses, resort hotels and mixed-use town centers.

Founded in 1936 as a paper manufacturing company, St.