Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) Price Target Raised to $165.00

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) had its price target hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $160.00 to $165.00 in a report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the bank’s stock.

WTFC has been the topic of several other reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Friday, September 25th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Wintrust Financial from $173.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Deutsche Bank initiated coverage on Wintrust Financial in a research report on Monday, October 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $175.00 target price for the company. Raymond James Financial set a $165.00 price target on Wintrust Financial in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, Citigroup lowered Wintrust Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wintrust Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $175.86.

Wintrust Financial Trading Up 0.3%

NASDAQ WTFC opened at $154.97 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $10.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.86. Wintrust Financial has a twelve month low of $122.00 and a twelve month high of $167.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The business’s fifty day moving average is $148.48 and its 200 day moving average is $150.49.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 19th. The bank reported $3.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.06. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 13.31% and a net margin of 21.03%. The company had revenue of $757.88 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $754.54 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Wintrust Financial will post 13.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 5th will be issued a $0.55 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 5th. This represents a $2.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.87%.

Insider Activity at Wintrust Financial

In related news, insider Richard Murphy sold 7,136 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.66, for a total transaction of $1,060,837.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 30,107 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,475,706.62. This trade represents a 19.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WTFC. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Wintrust Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,058,088,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 26.6% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,830,268 shares of the bank’s stock worth $254,297,000 after buying an additional 385,069 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial in the 2nd quarter worth about $168,021,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial in the 2nd quarter worth about $92,734,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Wintrust Financial during the second quarter valued at about $92,391,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Wintrust Financial Company Profile

Wintrust Financial Corporation is a bank holding company founded in 1991 and headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois. Through a network of locally operated community banks, it serves individuals, businesses and nonprofit organizations, primarily in the Chicago area and surrounding parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. The company offers consumer and commercial banking services, including deposit accounts, business and personal loans, cash management and treasury services. Its other businesses provide mortgage lending, wealth management and specialty finance services.