M. Kraus & Co Buys New Stake in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

M. Kraus & Co bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 2,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WFC. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% in 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 buying an additional 949,735,001 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 277.4% in the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,740,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $771,092,000 after buying an additional 7,894,919 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the first quarter worth about $109,643,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 34.6% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,307,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $381,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,365,629 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 30.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,926,423 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $353,668,000 after purchasing an additional 1,152,181 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WFC opened at $79.79 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06. The company has a market cap of $255.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.66, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.25. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $57.35 and a 52 week high of $86.65. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $80.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $76.48.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $20.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.83 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 16.82% and a return on equity of 12.29%. The firm’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.33 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 8th were given a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 8th. This is an increase from Wells Fargo & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is 30.82%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on WFC shares. Dbs Bank raised Wells Fargo & Company from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley lowered Wells Fargo & Company from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $87.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered Wells Fargo & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.41.

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.