Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Shares Sold by Salem Investment Counselors Inc.

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lessened its position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 8.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 15,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,386 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $1,071,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of WFC. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 4,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the second quarter worth about $225,000. Rathbones Group PLC grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 109,885 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,526,000 after buying an additional 1,762 shares in the last quarter. Marble Harbor Investment Counsel LLC raised its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Marble Harbor Investment Counsel LLC now owns 125,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,434,000 after buying an additional 1,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Waycross Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 12.4% in the 2nd quarter. Waycross Partners LLC now owns 282,039 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,750,000 after acquiring an additional 31,033 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on WFC. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $82.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Phillip Securities raised Wells Fargo & Company from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $60.83 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Ather Williams III sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.70, for a total transaction of $3,822,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 163,610 shares in the company, valued at $10,421,957. This represents a 26.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

WFC stock opened at $70.59 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $72.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.07. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $46.12 and a 52 week high of $78.13. The stock has a market cap of $235.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The financial services provider reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.28 by $0.14. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The business had revenue of $20.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.39 EPS. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.26%.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.