Thrive Wealth Management LLC Grows Stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Thrive Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 41.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,533 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,080 shares during the quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $756,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth about $3,365,658,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 10.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 34,339,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,411,992,000 after purchasing an additional 3,307,855 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 20,369,222 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,430,742,000 after purchasing an additional 238,131 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 932.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,734,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,105,218,000 after buying an additional 14,210,193 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,914,098 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $977,338,000 after buying an additional 62,099 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on WFC shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $73.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $77.48.

Wells Fargo & Company Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:WFC opened at $75.43 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $70.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.94. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12-month low of $50.15 and a 12-month high of $81.50. The company has a market capitalization of $245.46 billion, a PE ratio of 14.02, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.16. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The company had revenue of $20.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 9th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 9th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is 28.73%.

Wells Fargo & Company announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 29th that allows the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.