Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Truist Financial

Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $82.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on WFC. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $60.83 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $61.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.92.

Wells Fargo & Company Trading Down 0.1 %

Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $71.55 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $238.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $72.02 and a 200-day moving average of $62.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Wells Fargo & Company has a one year low of $46.12 and a one year high of $78.13.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The financial services provider reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $20.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.40 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 14.43%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.39 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is 33.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Ather Williams III sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.70, for a total value of $3,822,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 163,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,421,957. This represents a 26.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Beurden Saul Van sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.99, for a total value of $2,169,650.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 126,687 shares in the company, valued at $7,853,327.13. This represents a 21.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.08% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Wells Fargo & Company

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WFC. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 19,848,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,178,591,000 after buying an additional 831,975 shares during the period. National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 15.2% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 6,789,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $383,532,000 after purchasing an additional 897,195 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 2.5% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,641,581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $375,183,000 after purchasing an additional 162,066 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,284,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $441,983,000 after purchasing an additional 575,892 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,954,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $336,375,000 after buying an additional 5,237,500 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.