Bell Investment Advisors Inc Boosts Stake in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

Bell Investment Advisors Inc grew its stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 41.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,944 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,159 shares during the quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $316,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 54.9% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 16,635,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,332,851,000 after acquiring an additional 5,894,747 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Wells Fargo & Company in the first quarter worth $109,643,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 34.6% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,307,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $381,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,365,629 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Phoenix Financial Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 437.6% during the 2nd quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 1,312,103 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $105,120,000 after purchasing an additional 1,068,040 shares during the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WFC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $89.57.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

NYSE:WFC opened at $84.98 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $83.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.92. The firm has a market cap of $266.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.98, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.22. Wells Fargo & Company has a one year low of $58.42 and a one year high of $88.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $21.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.11 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.51% and a net margin of 17.18%.The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.42 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

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