Hoxton Planning & Management LLC Makes New $232,000 Investment in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Hoxton Planning & Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,229 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 62.3% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 66,233 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,652,000 after purchasing an additional 25,436 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 28.2% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,846,015 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $199,904,000 after purchasing an additional 626,791 shares during the period. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 33,099 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,316,000 after purchasing an additional 627 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 168.2% during the fourth quarter. Westpac Banking Corp now owns 30,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,116,000 after purchasing an additional 18,896 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 80,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,684,000 after purchasing an additional 5,496 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WFC. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Dbs Bank raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 26th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $80.63 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $262.38 billion, a PE ratio of 13.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $78.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.90. Wells Fargo & Company has a one year low of $50.15 and a one year high of $84.83.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $20.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.83 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 16.82% and a return on equity of 12.29%. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.33 EPS. Research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is a boost from Wells Fargo & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.40%.

Wells Fargo & Company declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 29th that permits the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wells Fargo & Company Profile

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.