Palouse Capital Management Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in KeyCorp $KEY

Palouse Capital Management Inc. reduced its stake in KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) by 44.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,343 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 71,964 shares during the quarter. Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in KeyCorp were worth $1,791,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in KeyCorp by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 124,811,543 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,576,110,000 after buying an additional 1,192,323 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of KeyCorp by 90.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 36,370,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $679,768,000 after acquiring an additional 17,245,128 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of KeyCorp by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,983,690 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $493,048,000 after acquiring an additional 115,968 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of KeyCorp by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 21,027,471 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $434,007,000 after purchasing an additional 238,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of KeyCorp by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,567,184 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $424,507,000 after purchasing an additional 916,732 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.69% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on KEY shares. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of KeyCorp from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of KeyCorp from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of KeyCorp from $300.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of KeyCorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of KeyCorp from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other KeyCorp news, insider Angela G. Mago sold 22,826 shares of KeyCorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.66, for a total value of $494,411.16. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 281,564 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,098,676.24. The trade was a 7.50% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

KeyCorp Price Performance

KEY opened at $23.27 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $21.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.02. KeyCorp has a 52-week low of $16.47 and a 52-week high of $23.72.

KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.03. KeyCorp had a net margin of 17.03% and a return on equity of 10.80%. The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that KeyCorp will post 1.82 EPS for the current year.

KeyCorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 2nd were issued a $0.205 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.82 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. KeyCorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.31%.

KeyCorp declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, May 13th that permits the company to repurchase $3.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 13% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About KeyCorp

KeyCorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, that operates through its primary banking subsidiary, KeyBank. It provides a broad range of banking and financial services to individual consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies and large corporations. KeyBank’s offerings span traditional deposit and lending products as well as more specialized financial solutions designed for commercial and institutional clients.

The company’s product and service mix includes retail banking products such as checking and savings accounts, consumer and residential mortgage lending, and auto financing.