Top lenders rely on these service providers

Article Excerpt

These stocks are a good way for investors to diversify their Finance sector holdings beyond the big banks. Both provide vital services to other lenders and firms, which helps cut your risk. STATE STREET CORP. $67 is a buy. The company (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 367.1 million; Market cap: $24.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to operators of mutual funds and pension plans. It will now pay $3.5 billion for the investor services division of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. It provides custody, administration and other services to mutual fund operators and financial institutions. Eliminating overlapping operations will cut $260 million from State Street’s annual costs by the end of the third year. To help pay for this acquisition, the company sold $1.9 billion in new shares. It also suspended share buybacks but expects to re-start them in the second quarter of 2022. The company’s fee income varies…