Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $49.29.

WFC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $64.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $47.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded Wells Fargo & Company from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $49.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th.

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Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 3.4 %

Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $38.77 on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $35.25 and a fifty-two week high of $48.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $145.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.99.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.08. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 10.07% and a net margin of 15.93%. The business had revenue of $20.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 4.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 5th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 4th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Kleber Santos sold 34,698 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.27, for a total value of $1,605,476.46. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,590 shares in the company, valued at $906,429.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Wells Fargo & Company

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WFC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,049,693,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 129,312.1% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 26,287,479 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,085,410,000 after acquiring an additional 26,267,166 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 105,621,983 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,248,626,000 after acquiring an additional 18,252,701 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 1,478.6% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,390,611 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $406,609,000 after acquiring an additional 7,859,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company in the first quarter worth about $345,861,000. Institutional investors own 72.24% of the company’s stock.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

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Wells Fargo & Co is a diversified, community-based financial services company. It is engaged in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage products and services, and consumer and commercial finance. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management.