Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Raises Stock Holdings in Piper Sandler Companies $PIPR

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) by 1.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Piper Sandler Companies were worth $2,140,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PIPR. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Piper Sandler Companies during the 1st quarter worth $49,826,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its stake in Piper Sandler Companies by 35.0% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 357,167 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,456,000 after buying an additional 92,527 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Piper Sandler Companies by 384.7% in the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 50,637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,541,000 after buying an additional 40,190 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC raised its stake in Piper Sandler Companies by 16.8% in the first quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 250,507 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,041,000 after buying an additional 35,953 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Piper Sandler Companies by 31.7% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 78,128 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $19,349,000 after buying an additional 18,787 shares during the last quarter. 72.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Piper Sandler Companies in a research note on Wednesday. Zacks Research cut Piper Sandler Companies from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Wolfe Research upgraded Piper Sandler Companies from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $339.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Piper Sandler Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Piper Sandler Companies currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $312.50.

Piper Sandler Companies Stock Down 2.1%

Shares of PIPR stock opened at $325.83 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.50 and a beta of 1.45. Piper Sandler Companies has a fifty-two week low of $202.91 and a fifty-two week high of $374.77. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $337.66.

Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The financial services provider reported $2.95 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.96. The firm had revenue of $405.39 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $349.40 million. Piper Sandler Companies had a return on equity of 18.67% and a net margin of 13.18%.Piper Sandler Companies’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.52 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Piper Sandler Companies will post 14.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Piper Sandler Companies Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 12th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is a positive change from Piper Sandler Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. Piper Sandler Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 23.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jonathan J. Doyle sold 3,536 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $316.84, for a total transaction of $1,120,346.24. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 132,910 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,111,204.40. This trade represents a 2.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel John W. Geelan sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $322.69, for a total value of $645,380.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 12,645 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,080,415.05. This trade represents a 13.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,136 shares of company stock valued at $8,380,342 in the last three months. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Piper Sandler Companies

Piper Sandler Companies operates as an investment bank and institutional securities firm that serves corporations, private equity groups, public entities, non-profit entities, and institutional investors in the United States and internationally. It offers investment banking services and institutional sales, trading, and research services for various equity and fixed income products; advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt private placements, and debt and restructuring advisory; raises capital through equity and debt financings; underwrites municipal issuances; and municipal financial advisory and loan placement services, as well as various over-the-counter derivative products.