Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Wednesday, July 16th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $83.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.58.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of WFC opened at $79.0680 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market capitalization of $253.29 billion, a PE ratio of 13.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.20. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52-week low of $50.22 and a 52-week high of $84.83.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $20.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.83 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.29% and a net margin of 16.82%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 8th. This is a positive change from Wells Fargo & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.82%.

Wells Fargo & Company declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, April 29th that permits the company to buyback $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% during the second quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 949,769,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $76,095,550,000 after acquiring an additional 949,735,001 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the second quarter valued at $3,990,551,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 277.4% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,740,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $771,092,000 after acquiring an additional 7,894,919 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 7,887.9% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,393,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $243,589,000 after purchasing an additional 3,350,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 34,339,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,411,992,000 after purchasing an additional 3,307,855 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

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.