WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Sets New 52-Week High – Here’s What Happened

Shares of WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $37.52 and last traded at $37.42, with a volume of 399234 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $34.01.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WAFD. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on WaFd from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 21st. DA Davidson boosted their price target on WaFd from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of WaFd in a report on Monday, October 21st. Stephens raised their price target on shares of WaFd from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded WaFd from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.00.

WaFd Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $3.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.35 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The company’s fifty day moving average is $35.12 and its 200 day moving average is $31.93.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.01. WaFd had a return on equity of 9.44% and a net margin of 13.97%. The company had revenue of $389.98 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.43 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that WaFd, Inc will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

WaFd Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 23rd. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.94%.

Insider Activity

In other WaFd news, EVP Ryan Mauer sold 12,132 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.33, for a total value of $404,359.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 100,376 shares in the company, valued at $3,345,532.08. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.25% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of WaFd

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WAFD. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its stake in WaFd by 353.2% in the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 102,577 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,978,000 after buying an additional 79,942 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of WaFd by 94.4% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 34,046 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 16,534 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of WaFd during the 1st quarter valued at $653,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of WaFd by 24.1% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 139,530 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,988,000 after purchasing an additional 27,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in WaFd by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,902,461 shares of the bank’s stock worth $229,408,000 after purchasing an additional 125,020 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About WaFd

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.