WASHINGTON TRUST Co Raises Stock Holdings in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co boosted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 399 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $1,138,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. First Financial Corp IN increased its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 4,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 20,280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $998,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 19.1% during the fourth quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 1,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank now owns 5,625 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Security National Bank of SO Dak increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 3.0% during the third quarter. Security National Bank of SO Dak now owns 8,591 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $351,000 after acquiring an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Compass Point boosted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $63.00 target price (up previously from $57.00) on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.85.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

NYSE WFC traded up $0.39 during trading on Thursday, reaching $58.00. 6,031,934 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,993,621. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $52.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.94. The company has a market cap of $205.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1-year low of $36.27 and a 1-year high of $58.44.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 12th. The financial services provider reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.16 by ($0.30). The business had revenue of $20.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.30 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 16.60% and a return on equity of 12.40%. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.67 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 4.72 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 1st. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.05%.

Wells Fargo & Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.