ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Decreases Position in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 6.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,211 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $2,466,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of WFC. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 62.3% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 66,233 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,652,000 after acquiring an additional 25,436 shares during the last quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 20.1% in the 1st quarter. Annex Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,008 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 73.5% in the 1st quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 27,256 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,957,000 after acquiring an additional 11,547 shares during the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 41,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,972,000 after acquiring an additional 1,974 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MRA Advisory Group raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 17.0% in the 1st quarter. MRA Advisory Group now owns 3,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 0.2%

Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $80.63 on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $55.98 and a fifty-two week high of $86.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $80.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.28. The company has a market capitalization of $258.28 billion, a PE ratio of 13.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WFC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $87.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, September 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. 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 report on Wednesday, September 24th. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $83.74.

Wells Fargo & 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.