What Happened?
Shares of financial services company Northern Trust (NASDAQ: NTRS) jumped 3.5% in the morning session after Wells Fargo raised its price target on the stock to $145 from $131.
While the bank maintained its Equalweight rating on the shares, the positive price target revision helped push the stock to a new all-time high of $141.4. The move also came as Northern Trust announced several key leadership changes. The company appointed Clive Bellows and Guy Gibson as co-presidents of its Asset Servicing division and named Eric Freedman as the new Chief Investment Officer for its Wealth Management business.
After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $144.37, up 3.7% from previous close.
Is now the time to buy Northern Trust? Access our full analysis report here.
What Is The Market Telling Us
Northern Trust’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 6 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago when the stock dropped 1.8% on the news that it reported third-quarter results that met revenue expectations but failed to impress investors.
The company's revenue of $2.03 billion was in line with Wall Street estimates, and its earnings per share of $2.29 beat forecasts by 2.2%. Additionally, Assets Under Management (AUM), which represents the client capital under its stewardship, grew 9.3% year-on-year to $1.77 trillion, also surpassing expectations. However, the market's negative reaction indicated that these results, while solid, were not strong enough for investors who may have been hoping for a more substantial outperformance to signal accelerating momentum.
Northern Trust is up 3.7% since the beginning of the year, and at $144.37 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Northern Trust’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,572.
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