Legal & General Group Plc Buys New Stake in WSFS Financial Corporation $WSFS

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in WSFS Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:WSFS) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 119,213 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $9,147,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of WSFS Financial during the second quarter worth $576,695,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of WSFS Financial by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,465,792 shares of the bank’s stock worth $136,210,000 after purchasing an additional 32,423 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of WSFS Financial by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,066,591 shares of the bank’s stock worth $58,918,000 after purchasing an additional 60,931 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its stake in WSFS Financial by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,055,902 shares of the bank’s stock worth $58,328,000 after buying an additional 23,946 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in WSFS Financial during the 2nd quarter worth $68,174,000. 88.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at WSFS Financial

In other WSFS Financial news, CEO Rodger Levenson sold 65,446 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.11, for a total transaction of $4,850,203.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 186,088 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,790,981.68. This trade represents a 26.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Shari Kruzinski sold 3,500 shares of WSFS Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.74, for a total transaction of $286,090.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 15,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,243,020.18. The trade was a 18.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

WSFS Financial Stock Performance

Shares of WSFS stock opened at $76.69 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $79.21 and a 200 day moving average of $72.43. WSFS Financial Corporation has a 1 year low of $49.92 and a 1 year high of $82.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.82 and a beta of 0.76.

WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.16. WSFS Financial had a return on equity of 11.71% and a net margin of 23.34%.The business had revenue of $284.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $278.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that WSFS Financial Corporation will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current year.

WSFS Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 7th. WSFS Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 13.38%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on WSFS. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of WSFS Financial in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of WSFS Financial from $83.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of WSFS Financial from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Monday. Stephens lowered shares of WSFS Financial from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $87.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $90.00 target price (up from $80.00) on shares of WSFS Financial in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $83.07.

WSFS Financial Profile

WSFS Financial Corporation is the bank holding company for WSFS Bank, a regional financial institution headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. The company traces its roots to the Safe Deposit & Trust Company, founded in 1832, and formally organized as WSFS Financial in the mid-1980s. Over its long history, WSFS has grown through a combination of organic expansion and selective acquisitions to serve a broad base of individual, commercial and institutional clients.

WSFS Bank offers a full suite of banking and financial services, including retail and commercial deposit accounts, commercial and industrial lending, real estate financing, and treasury management solutions.