First Trust Advisors LP Decreases Stake in WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC)

First Trust Advisors LP lessened its stake in WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) by 12.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 133,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 18,497 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in WesBanco were worth $4,336,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in WesBanco in the fourth quarter valued at about $328,000. Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new position in WesBanco in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,148,000. Inspire Advisors LLC raised its holdings in WesBanco by 18.7% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 63,184 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,056,000 after purchasing an additional 9,955 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in WesBanco during the fourth quarter worth $323,000. Finally, Magnolia Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in WesBanco in the fourth quarter valued at $269,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WSBC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of WesBanco from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. DA Davidson increased their price target on shares of WesBanco from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Raymond James cut their price objective on WesBanco from $44.00 to $38.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded WesBanco from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on WesBanco from $36.00 to $34.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.29.

WesBanco Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of WSBC opened at $29.93 on Friday. WesBanco, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.56 and a fifty-two week high of $37.36. The company has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a PE ratio of 13.36 and a beta of 0.76. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $30.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93.

WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.06. WesBanco had a return on equity of 6.30% and a net margin of 15.89%. The firm had revenue of $253.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $206.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that WesBanco, Inc. will post 3.24 EPS for the current year.

WesBanco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.94%. WesBanco’s payout ratio is currently 96.73%.

WesBanco Company Profile

WesBanco, Inc operates as the bank holding company for WesBanco Bank, Inc that provides retail banking, corporate banking, personal and corporate trust, brokerage, mortgage banking, and insurance services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Community Banking, and Trust and Investment Services.