Hennessy Advisors Inc. Sells 11,000 Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 40.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 16,000 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 11,000 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Wintrust Financial were worth $1,670,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 0.5% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 26,713 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,017,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 120.8% during the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 351 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. raised its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 70.0% in the first quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. now owns 488 shares of the bank’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 24.5% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,026 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $95,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 4,011 shares of the bank’s stock worth $372,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. 93.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on WTFC. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $109.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $115.00 to $113.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Barclays reduced their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $116.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price target on Wintrust Financial from $117.00 to $112.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.38.

Wintrust Financial Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of WTFC stock traded up $2.11 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $97.81. 192,838 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 361,228. Wintrust Financial Co. has a 12-month low of $70.25 and a 12-month high of $105.29. The business’s fifty day moving average is $97.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $96.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.90 and a beta of 1.19.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The bank reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by $0.47. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.86% and a return on equity of 13.09%. The firm had revenue of $604.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $577.80 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. Wintrust Financial’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 9th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 8th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.61%.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.