Piper Sandler Cuts WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Price Target to $32.00

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) had its price objective reduced by Piper Sandler from $36.00 to $32.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the bank’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of WaFd from $40.00 to $37.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded WaFd from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Zacks Research lowered WaFd from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.25.

WaFd Price Performance

WaFd stock opened at $30.80 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.72 and a beta of 0.89. WaFd has a 52-week low of $26.31 and a 52-week high of $39.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $35.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.12.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 17th. The bank reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $205.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.56 million. WaFd had a net margin of 18.47% and a return on equity of 8.98%. On average, equities analysts predict that WaFd will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current year.

WaFd Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.07%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WAFD. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of WaFd during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in shares of WaFd in the 2nd quarter worth about $308,000. Nykredit A S bought a new position in WaFd in the 2nd quarter valued at about $52,000. Corient Private Wealth LP lifted its position in WaFd by 26.3% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 68,899 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,644,000 after acquiring an additional 14,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in WaFd during the 2nd quarter valued at about $376,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

WaFd Company Profile

WaFd, Inc is a bank holding company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and the parent company of WaFd Bank. Founded in 1917 as Washington Federal, the company adopted the WaFd name in 2024. WaFd Bank provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and nonprofit organizations.

The bank offers deposit accounts, residential mortgage lending, home equity financing, commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial lending, construction financing and consumer banking products.