New York State Common Retirement Fund Cuts Holdings in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its position in shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 350,641 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 6,819 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.53% of Wintrust Financial worth $43,728,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial during the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Wintrust Financial by 32.1% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 539 shares of the bank’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Wintrust Financial in the third quarter worth about $61,000. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 77.9% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 653 shares of the bank’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 32.2% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 677 shares of the bank’s stock worth $84,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on WTFC shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $150.00 price objective (up from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.69.

Insider Activity at Wintrust Financial

In related news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 4,213 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.31, for a total value of $553,209.03. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 206,294 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,088,465.14. The trade was a 2.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 3,186 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.30, for a total transaction of $418,321.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 48,814 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,409,278.20. This trade represents a 6.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 10,178 shares of company stock worth $1,336,315. Company insiders own 1.47% of the company’s stock.

Wintrust Financial Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ WTFC opened at $130.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.69 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $129.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $119.76. Wintrust Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $91.38 and a 52-week high of $142.04.

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

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. This is a positive change from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is presently 19.40%.

Wintrust Financial Profile

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.