Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) Cut to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report report published on Wednesday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on WTFC. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Wintrust Financial in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $157.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup upped their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.69.

Wintrust Financial Price Performance

Wintrust Financial stock opened at $131.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $131.10 and a 200-day moving average of $116.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.78 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. Wintrust Financial has a 52 week low of $89.68 and a 52 week high of $142.04.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 17.52%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.87 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Wintrust Financial will post 10.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This is an increase from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is presently 17.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wintrust Financial

In other news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total transaction of $1,789,016.16. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 197,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,817,808.68. This represents a 7.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 4,099 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.63, for a total value of $473,967.37. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,892,420.93. This represents a 8.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTFC. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 14.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $559,364,000 after acquiring an additional 637,072 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 36.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,841 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $87,132,000 after purchasing an additional 213,559 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 11.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank’s stock worth $141,981,000 after buying an additional 133,311 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $285,169,000 after buying an additional 126,724 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 8.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,726 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $125,464,000 after buying an additional 92,995 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

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.