The stock market keeps lifting their gains

Article Excerpt

We recommend investors diversify their Finance sector holdings beyond the big banks with smaller, high-quality firms such as State Street and T. Rowe Price. Both are leaders in their niche industries, and have a long history of rewarding investors with rising dividends. STATE STREET CORP. $95 is a buy. The company (New York symbol STT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 293.1 million; Market cap: $27.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.statestreet.com) sells accounting and administrative services to operators of mutual funds and pension plans. In the three months ended September 30, 2024, State Street’s fee revenue rose 10.8%, to $2.62 billion from $2.36 billion a year earlier. That’s mainly because new clients and improving stock markets lifted assets under custody and administration by 16.8%. Overall earnings before unusual items gained 11.3%, to $682 million from $613 million. The company repurchased $450 million of its shares in the quarter, which is why its per-share earnings improved 17.1%, to $2.26 from…