Dean Investment Associates LLC Sells 32,293 Shares of WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Dean Investment Associates LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) by 46.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 37,767 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 32,293 shares during the period. Dean Investment Associates LLC’s holdings in WaFd were worth $1,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in WAFD. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in WaFd by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,420,004 shares of the bank’s stock worth $303,701,000 after acquiring an additional 166,931 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in WaFd by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,774,081 shares of the bank’s stock worth $57,196,000 after purchasing an additional 234,977 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in WaFd by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,135 shares of the bank’s stock worth $61,318,000 after purchasing an additional 159,750 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in WaFd by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 929,760 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,975,000 after purchasing an additional 22,716 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in WaFd by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 736,564 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,747,000 after purchasing an additional 28,849 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WAFD has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $29.00 price target on shares of WaFd in a report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on WaFd from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on WaFd from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com raised WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered WaFd from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.50.

WaFd Stock Up 1.9 %

WAFD opened at $28.03 on Friday. WaFd, Inc has a 1-year low of $23.75 and a 1-year high of $38.62. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $2.29 billion, a PE ratio of 12.92 and a beta of 0.79.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The bank reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.05. WaFd had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 12.66%. The business had revenue of $179.79 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $184.17 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that WaFd, Inc will post 2.56 EPS for the current year.

WaFd Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.85%. This is an increase from WaFd’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. WaFd’s payout ratio is currently 40.75%.

About WaFd

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts.