Pitcairn Co. Increases Stock Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Pitcairn Co. raised its position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 16.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,793 shares during the period. Pitcairn Co.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $4,276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth about $558,000. Selway Asset Management raised its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Selway Asset Management now owns 37,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,655,000 after purchasing an additional 6,400 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 271.6% during the 4th quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 24,233 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,673,000 after purchasing an additional 17,712 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 80,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,684,000 after purchasing an additional 5,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westpac Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 168.2% in the 4th quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 30,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,116,000 after acquiring an additional 18,896 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WFC has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $73.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Compass Point raised their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.55.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Down 7.5 %

WFC stock traded down $5.39 during trading on Thursday, hitting $66.87. 13,140,653 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,093,658. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $75.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.43. The stock has a market cap of $218.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.16. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1 year low of $50.15 and a 1 year high of $81.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. The firm’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 7th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Co is a diversified and community-based financial services company, which engages in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth and Investment Management.