Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Shares Sold by Paladin Advisory Group LLC

Paladin Advisory Group LLC lowered its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 18.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,410 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 534 shares during the quarter. Paladin Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $169,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WFC. National Pension Service raised its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 15.2% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 6,789,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $383,532,000 after purchasing an additional 897,195 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,641,581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $375,183,000 after buying an additional 162,066 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,284,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $441,983,000 after acquiring an additional 575,892 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,954,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $336,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,237,500 shares during the period. Finally, Canoe Financial LP bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the third quarter valued at $160,529,000. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WFC. Compass Point raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Wolfe Research raised Wells Fargo & Company from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 1.1 %

Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $78.71 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $262.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.58, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.18. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $47.45 and a fifty-two week high of $78.30.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.03%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.74%.

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.