Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Sells 205,363 Shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio reduced its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 12.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,438,507 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 205,363 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $101,041,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Spinnaker Trust increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 7,407 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $520,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Shakespeare Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Shakespeare Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $972,000 after purchasing an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. MONECO Advisors LLC now owns 7,018 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $493,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 5,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $410,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crown Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC now owns 6,648 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $467,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WFC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $73.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Barclays reduced 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 note on Monday, April 14th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. They set a “hold” rating and a $83.00 target price for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.73.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

WFC stock opened at $73.32 on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $50.15 and a 52 week high of $81.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $238.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.13.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $20.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. Wells Fargo & Company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 9th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 9th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.18%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.73%.

Wells Fargo & Company announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 29th that permits the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 17.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

About Wells Fargo & Company

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.