Acquisition spurs State Street’s profit

Article Excerpt

STATE STREET CORP. $79 (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 385.7 million; Market cap: $30.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to the operators of mutual funds and pension plans. It also has a banking division. In July 2016, State Street purchased General Electric’s asset management business for $485 million. This operation manages pension plans and other portfolios for over 100 institutional investors. In the quarter ended September 30, 2016, the company’s revenue rose 4.2%, to $2.75 billion from $2.6 billion a year earlier. The new GE operations contributed $65 million to that increase. Without unusual items, earnings gained 11.8%, to $532 million from $476 million. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings improved 11.8%, to $1.32 from $1.15. State Street is also cutting costs as part of new restructuring plan, which includes job cuts and greater use of computers in its businesses. These moves should cut $165 million…