DA Davidson Raises WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Price Target to $41.00

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) had its price objective hoisted by DA Davidson from $39.00 to $41.00 in a report published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the bank’s stock. DA Davidson also issued estimates for WaFd’s Q1 2025 earnings at $0.71 EPS.

WAFD has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Stephens upped their price target on WaFd from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of WaFd in a report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com cut WaFd from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.00.

WaFd Stock Performance

WAFD opened at $34.16 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $2.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.77 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.45. WaFd has a 1-year low of $23.36 and a 1-year high of $37.49.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $389.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.43 million. WaFd had a return on equity of 9.44% and a net margin of 13.97%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that WaFd will post 2.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WaFd Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 23rd. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WaFd

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of WaFd by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 12,054 shares of the bank’s stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 661 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of WaFd by 1.0% during the first quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 101,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,932,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of WaFd by 15.7% during the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 14,194 shares of the bank’s stock worth $412,000 after purchasing an additional 1,928 shares during the last quarter. Talbot Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of WaFd by 4.3% during the first quarter. Talbot Financial LLC now owns 74,298 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,157,000 after purchasing an additional 3,034 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings in shares of WaFd by 3.9% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 41,382 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,555 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

WaFd Company Profile

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts.