UWM (NYSE:UWMC) Lowered to Strong Sell Rating by Zacks Research

UWM (NYSE:UWMC) was downgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised UWM from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $4.50 to $3.75 in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Barclays reduced their target price on UWM from $5.00 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. BTIG Research set a $2.00 price target on shares of UWM in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of UWM from $5.00 to $3.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, Stephens initiated coverage on shares of UWM in a research note on Friday, April 24th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $4.00 price objective for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.47.

UWM Trading Down 35.1%

NYSE:UWMC opened at $1.20 on Wednesday. UWM has a 1 year low of $0.93 and a 1 year high of $7.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $2.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.13, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The company has a market cap of $1.91 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.94 and a beta of 1.78.

UWM (NYSE:UWMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.23) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.07 by ($0.30). The company had revenue of $888.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $727.46 million. UWM had a negative net margin of 1.04% and a negative return on equity of 5.61%. As a group, analysts expect that UWM will post 0.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On UWM

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in UWMC. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of UWM by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,959,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,042,000 after acquiring an additional 1,676,754 shares in the last quarter. Great Hill Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of UWM by 9,900.0% in the 4th quarter. Great Hill Capital LLC now owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,000 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG grew its holdings in shares of UWM by 93.8% during the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 3,347,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,661,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620,003 shares during the last quarter. BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. bought a new position in shares of UWM during the 4th quarter valued at $5,695,000. Finally, Concentric Capital Strategies LP raised its position in UWM by 507.8% in the 4th quarter. Concentric Capital Strategies LP now owns 2,251,999 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,864,000 after purchasing an additional 1,881,483 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 53.59% of the company’s stock.

Key UWM News

Here are the key news stories impacting UWM this week:

• Positive Sentiment: UWM announced a $2.05 billion strategic equity investment from the Ishbia family and Oaktree. Management said the funding should improve liquidity, support growth and help reduce its nonfunding debt-to-equity target to approximately 1.2x. UWM Announces Strategic Capital Partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Second-quarter revenue of $888.0 million exceeded the roughly $727.5 million analyst consensus, while loan origination volume reached $39.7 billion and adjusted EBITDA totaled $185.9 million. UWM Second-Quarter Results
• Neutral Sentiment: Unusually heavy options activity accompanied the selloff, with traders purchasing 26,964 call options—about 317% above average daily call volume. This may reflect speculative bullish positioning but does not change the company’s fundamentals.
• Negative Sentiment: UWM reported a $451.9 million net loss, or $0.23 per share, compared with expectations for $0.07 of earnings and $0.16 of EPS a year earlier. The sizable earnings miss overshadowed the revenue beat. UWM Q2 Loss and Revenue Results
• Negative Sentiment: The company suspended its dividend and is pursuing roughly $3 billion of total equity. Investors are concerned about the cost of the preferred-equity and warrant financing, as well as potential dilution to existing shareholders. UWM Preferreds, Warrants and Dilution
• Negative Sentiment: The capital actions signal that management is prioritizing liquidity and deleveraging over near-term shareholder returns. The combination of a dividend suspension, significant dilution risk and the quarterly loss brought the stock closer to its 52-week low. United Wholesale Mortgage Capital Raise

UWM Company Profile

United Wholesale Mortgage (NYSE: UWMC) is a leading mortgage lender in the United States specializing in the wholesale channel. The company partners with independent mortgage brokers, community banks and credit unions to offer a full suite of residential mortgage products. Through its network of third-party originators, United Wholesale Mortgage underwrites, funds and closes loans, allowing its partners to focus on customer acquisition and service.

The company’s product offerings include conventional fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, Veterans Affairs (VA) loans, U.S.