Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $90.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $87.00.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on WFC. Dbs Bank raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $83.74.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

WFC opened at $80.94 on Monday. 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 cap of $259.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.86, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52-week low of $54.40 and a 52-week high of $86.65. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $80.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $76.15.

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

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a boost from Wells Fargo & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.82%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wells Fargo & Company

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in WFC. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% in the second quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 949,769,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,095,550,000 after purchasing an additional 949,735,001 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,990,551,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 7,894,919 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 18.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 14,155,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,165,868,000 after purchasing an additional 2,180,693 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 8,010.7% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,973,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $158,135,000 after purchasing an additional 1,949,395 shares in the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.