Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,831 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares during the period. Benchmark Financial Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $708,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% in the 2nd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 949,769,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $76,095,550,000 after purchasing an additional 949,735,001 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 20,497,429 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,471,259,000 after buying an additional 128,207 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 277.4% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,740,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $771,092,000 after buying an additional 7,894,919 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 5.5% in the second quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 10,371,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $830,990,000 after buying an additional 542,493 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 8,953,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $640,616,000 after buying an additional 523,107 shares during the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WFC shares. Raymond James Financial lowered Wells Fargo & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.57.

Wells Fargo & Company Trading Up 1.4%

Shares of WFC opened at $87.19 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $82.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.69. Wells Fargo & Company has a twelve month low of $58.42 and a twelve month high of $87.47. The stock has a market cap of $279.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $21.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.11 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 12.51%. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 7th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.61%.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

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.