Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 1,848 Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,636 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,848 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Wintrust Financial were worth $6,190,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WTFC. FMR LLC increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% in 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 during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,562,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 36.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,841 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $87,132,000 after buying an additional 213,559 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 11.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $141,981,000 after buying an additional 133,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WTFC. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $150.00 price objective (up from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $152.00 price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.69.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Shares of WTFC opened at $113.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Wintrust Financial Co. has a one year low of $91.38 and a one year high of $142.04. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $124.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $121.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a PE ratio of 11.00 and a beta of 1.16.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.52% and a return on equity of 12.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.87 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wintrust Financial

In related news, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 416 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.95, for a total transaction of $54,475.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 2,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $298,042.20. This trade represents a 15.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO David A. Dykstra sold 4,213 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.31, for a total transaction of $553,209.03. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 206,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,088,465.14. This trade represents a 2.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 10,178 shares of company stock valued at $1,336,315. Corporate insiders own 1.47% 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.