Arizona State Retirement System Sells 638 Shares of WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Arizona State Retirement System lessened its position in shares of WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,095 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 638 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in WaFd were worth $596,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in WaFd by 19.0% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,666,170 shares of the bank’s stock worth $291,145,000 after buying an additional 1,544,977 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in WaFd by 1.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,074,908 shares of the bank’s stock worth $212,105,000 after purchasing an additional 130,515 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in WaFd by 16.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,934,502 shares of the bank’s stock worth $104,343,000 after purchasing an additional 566,556 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in WaFd by 9.6% in the third quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,201,972 shares of the bank’s stock worth $56,415,000 after purchasing an additional 192,061 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in WaFd by 3.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,343,310 shares of the bank’s stock worth $35,625,000 after purchasing an additional 44,992 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on WAFD. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of WaFd in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $35.00 price target on shares of WaFd in a report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of WaFd from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of WaFd from $37.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 18th.

WaFd Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ WAFD opened at $27.90 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.18 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $27.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $28.23. WaFd, Inc has a 1 year low of $23.36 and a 1 year high of $34.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 16th. The bank reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.08. WaFd had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 11.19%. The firm had revenue of $166.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $180.45 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.16 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that WaFd, Inc will post 2.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WaFd Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 8th. Investors of record on Friday, February 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 22nd. This is a boost from WaFd’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.73%. WaFd’s payout ratio is 30.50%.

WaFd Company Profile

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts.