Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Grows Position in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 71.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 88,176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 36,694 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $7,391,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 302,092,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,203,688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,341,222 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,990,551,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 7.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 17,859,680 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,496,998,000 after purchasing an additional 1,223,999 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 18.2% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 14,155,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,165,868,000 after buying an additional 2,180,693 shares during the period. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.1% during the second quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 8,469,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $678,598,000 after buying an additional 88,358 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WFC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $101.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 17th. Barclays lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $113.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Evercore reduced their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $110.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $102.00 to $100.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $104.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Thirteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wells Fargo & Company news, EVP Kleber Santos sold 25,000 shares of Wells Fargo & Company stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.72, for a total transaction of $2,193,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 79,876 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,006,722.72. The trade was a 23.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.08% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $86.29 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52-week low of $58.42 and a 52-week high of $97.76. The company has a market capitalization of $266.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50 day moving average of $90.96 and a 200 day moving average of $86.37.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.10. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.27% and a return on equity of 12.90%. The company had revenue of $21.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.63 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.43 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 6th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 28.71%.

Wells Fargo & Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified, U.S.-based financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, the firm has evolved from its origins in express delivery and pioneer-era banking into one of the largest full-service banks in the United States. The company provides a broad range of financial products and services to individual, small business, commercial, and institutional clients. Charles W. Scharf serves as chief executive officer.

Wells Fargo operates across several core business segments, including consumer banking and lending, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and wealth and investment management.