JPMorgan Chase & Co. Has $14.35 Million Stake in Walker & Dunlop, Inc. $WD

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Walker & Dunlop, Inc. (NYSE:WD) by 64.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 203,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,710 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 0.60% of Walker & Dunlop worth $14,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Entropy Technologies LP boosted its stake in shares of Walker & Dunlop by 59.2% in the second quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 5,650 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $398,000 after buying an additional 2,100 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new position in Walker & Dunlop during the 2nd quarter worth $1,330,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its holdings in Walker & Dunlop by 41.2% in the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 6,851 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $483,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its position in shares of Walker & Dunlop by 46.8% during the 2nd quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 6,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $451,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Walker & Dunlop by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 35,845 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,526,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares during the period. 80.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on WD. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Walker & Dunlop from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Walker & Dunlop in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Walker & Dunlop in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Walker & Dunlop in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citizens Jmp upgraded shares of Walker & Dunlop from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $95.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.25.

Walker & Dunlop Price Performance

WD stock opened at $63.24 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.76 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.95. Walker & Dunlop, Inc. has a 1 year low of $60.72 and a 1 year high of $109.93.

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE:WD) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.21 by $0.01. Walker & Dunlop had a net margin of 9.31% and a return on equity of 8.85%. The firm had revenue of $337.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $325.10 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Walker & Dunlop, Inc. will post 4.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Walker & Dunlop Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 21st were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 21st. Walker & Dunlop’s dividend payout ratio is presently 79.53%.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of commercial real estate and finance services. It operates through the following segments: Capital Markets, Servicing and Asset Management, and Corporate. The Capital Markets segment offers a comprehensive range of commercial real estate finance products to customers.