Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Reaches New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $87.62 and last traded at $87.2360, with a volume of 422656 shares. The stock had previously closed at $86.97.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WFC. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 4th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.57.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 0.1%

The stock has a market cap of $278.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $82.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.69.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $21.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.11 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 12.51%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 7th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 7th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is currently 29.61%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wells Fargo & Company

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WFC. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% during the second quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 949,769,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,095,550,000 after acquiring an additional 949,735,001 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.4% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 302,092,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,203,688,000 after purchasing an additional 1,341,222 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company in the second quarter worth $3,990,551,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 20,497,429 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,471,259,000 after purchasing an additional 128,207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 7.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 17,859,680 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,496,998,000 after purchasing an additional 1,223,999 shares in the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.