Wintrust Financial Co. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 4th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 8th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the bank on Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%.

Wintrust Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 13.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Wintrust Financial has a payout ratio of 18.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Wintrust Financial to earn $10.87 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.4%.

Wintrust Financial Trading Down 3.6 %

NASDAQ WTFC opened at $96.28 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $120.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $122.35. Wintrust Financial has a one year low of $89.10 and a one year high of $142.04. The company has a market capitalization of $6.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.34 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.52% and a return on equity of 12.60%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.87 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Wintrust Financial will post 10.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on WTFC shares. Truist Financial raised Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $152.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $150.00 target price (up from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 3,186 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.30, for a total transaction of $418,321.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 48,814 shares in the company, valued at $6,409,278.20. The trade was a 6.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO David A. Dykstra sold 4,213 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.31, for a total value of $553,209.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 206,294 shares in the company, valued at $27,088,465.14. The trade was a 2.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,178 shares of company stock valued at $1,336,315 over the last quarter. 1.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.