Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Increases Dividend to $0.50 Per Share

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the bank on Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. This is a boost from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45.

Wintrust Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 13.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Wintrust Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 16.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Wintrust Financial to earn $10.81 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.7%.

Wintrust Financial Stock Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ:WTFC traded down $0.26 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $133.03. The stock had a trading volume of 653,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 493,999. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $8.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.90 and a beta of 1.20. Wintrust Financial has a 1-year low of $89.68 and a 1-year high of $142.04. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $131.06 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $116.32.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 12.92% and a net margin of 17.52%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.87 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Wintrust Financial will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on WTFC shares. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $152.00 price target on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Thursday. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.69.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wintrust Financial

In other news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total transaction of $1,789,016.16. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 197,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,817,808.68. The trade was a 7.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 4,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.63, for a total transaction of $473,967.37. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,892,420.93. This represents a 8.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.47% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.