First Trust Advisors LP Purchases 93,736 Shares of St. Joe Company (The) $JOE

First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in St. Joe Company (The) (NYSE:JOE) by 277.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 127,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 93,736 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in St. Joe were worth $8,011,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in St. Joe by 39.7% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 679 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. HRT Financial LP raised its position in shares of St. Joe by 0.7% in the second quarter. HRT Financial LP now owns 32,349 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,543,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of St. Joe by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 7,428 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $441,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of St. Joe by 31.8% during the 2nd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 977 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 236 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arete Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of St. Joe by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. 86.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

St. Joe Stock Down 1.6%

JOE stock opened at $62.09 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.67. St. Joe Company has a twelve month low of $46.37 and a twelve month high of $73.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a PE ratio of 29.01 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

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

St. Joe Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 21st will be paid a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 21st. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. St. Joe’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.91%.

Insider Transactions at St. Joe

In other St. Joe news, major shareholder Bruce R. Berkowitz sold 140,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.71, for a total value of $9,225,684.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 15,073,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $990,487,833.04. This trade represents a 0.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,000,000 shares of company stock valued at $65,585,733. Corporate insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of St. Joe from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold”.

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.