Brokerages Set Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Price Target at $133.69

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $133.69.

WTFC has been the topic of several research reports. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $150.00 price objective (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $157.00 price target for the company.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 2,363 shares of Wintrust Financial stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.32, for a total transaction of $310,309.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 19,858 shares in the company, valued at $2,607,752.56. This trade represents a 10.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 416 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.95, for a total transaction of $54,475.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $298,042.20. The trade was a 15.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,178 shares of company stock worth $1,336,315 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wintrust Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTFC. Earnest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Wintrust Financial in the 4th quarter worth approximately $163,767,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $94,906,000. FMR LLC increased its position in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank’s stock worth $559,364,000 after purchasing an additional 637,072 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Wintrust Financial by 261.4% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 698,628 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $87,126,000 after purchasing an additional 505,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Wintrust Financial during the fourth quarter valued at $51,754,000. 93.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wintrust Financial Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:WTFC opened at $110.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Wintrust Financial has a 1 year low of $91.38 and a 1 year high of $142.04. The company has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 1.16. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $126.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $121.75.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.52% and a return on equity of 12.60%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Wintrust Financial will post 10.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This is a positive change from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.40%.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.