Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Upgraded at Phillip Securities

Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) from a moderate buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $88.00 to $78.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped 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 report on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.34.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

NYSE:WFC opened at $64.58 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $210.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1 year low of $50.15 and a 1 year high of $81.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $72.15 and a 200-day moving average of $70.97.

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

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 28.73%.

Institutional Trading of Wells Fargo & Company

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,365,658,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 932.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,734,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,105,218,000 after buying an additional 14,210,193 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 7,887.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,393,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $243,589,000 after acquiring an additional 3,350,605 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 34,339,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,411,992,000 after acquiring an additional 3,307,855 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter worth $198,801,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

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.