The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Takes $40.02 Million Position in WSFS Financial Corporation $WSFS

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new position in WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 521,623 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $40,024,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in WSFS Financial during the second quarter valued at $576,695,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of WSFS Financial by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,465,792 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $136,210,000 after acquiring an additional 32,423 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of WSFS Financial by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,066,591 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $58,918,000 after acquiring an additional 60,931 shares during the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its holdings in shares of WSFS Financial by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,055,902 shares of the bank’s stock worth $58,328,000 after purchasing an additional 23,946 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of WSFS Financial in the second quarter worth approximately $68,174,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on WSFS shares. DA Davidson set a $83.00 target price on shares of WSFS Financial and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of WSFS Financial in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Stephens lowered shares of WSFS Financial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $87.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of WSFS Financial in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of WSFS Financial from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other WSFS Financial news, CEO Rodger Levenson sold 65,446 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.11, for a total value of $4,850,203.06. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 186,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,790,981.68. The trade was a 26.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Shari Kruzinski sold 3,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.74, for a total transaction of $286,090.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 15,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,243,020.18. The trade was a 18.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

WSFS Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WSFS opened at $78.62 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $78.98 and its 200 day moving average is $72.20. The stock has a market cap of $4.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.15 and a beta of 0.77. WSFS Financial Corporation has a 1-year low of $49.92 and a 1-year high of $82.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11.

WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $0.16. WSFS Financial had a return on equity of 11.71% and a net margin of 23.34%.The business had revenue of $284.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $278.41 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.27 earnings per share. WSFS Financial’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that WSFS Financial Corporation will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WSFS Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 7th were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. WSFS Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 13.38%.

WSFS Financial Profile

WSFS Financial Corporation is the bank holding company for WSFS Bank, a regional financial institution headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. The company traces its roots to the Safe Deposit & Trust Company, founded in 1832, and formally organized as WSFS Financial in the mid-1980s. Over its long history, WSFS has grown through a combination of organic expansion and selective acquisitions to serve a broad base of individual, commercial and institutional clients.

WSFS Bank offers a full suite of banking and financial services, including retail and commercial deposit accounts, commercial and industrial lending, real estate financing, and treasury management solutions.