Dodge & Cox Has $4.95 Billion Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Dodge & Cox decreased its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 19.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,452,850 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 16,496,760 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company comprises about 2.9% of Dodge & Cox’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Dodge & Cox’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $4,948,608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth about $3,365,658,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,284,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $441,983,000 after buying an additional 575,892 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,464,967 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $389,707,000 after acquiring an additional 352,821 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 4,138,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $290,710,000 after acquiring an additional 104,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Korea Investment CORP raised its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 3,286,809 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $230,865,000 after purchasing an additional 1,150,443 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WFC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $73.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.88.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of WFC stock opened at $63.17 on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company has a one year low of $50.15 and a one year high of $81.50. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $72.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $206.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by $0.16. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. The firm had revenue of $20.15 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.73%.

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.