KBC Group NV Boosts Stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 63.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,962,302 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 758,893 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $137,832,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WFC. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,954,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $336,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,237,500 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP purchased a new position in Wells Fargo & Company in the third quarter valued at about $160,529,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 158.1% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 2,709,659 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $153,069,000 after acquiring an additional 1,659,716 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 410.8% during the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 1,374,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,567,000 after acquiring an additional 1,105,679 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 15.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 6,789,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $383,532,000 after acquiring an additional 897,195 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Compass Point upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and raised their target price for the company from $60.83 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of WFC stock opened at $77.23 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The company has a market cap of $257.13 billion, a PE ratio of 14.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.18. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $73.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.07. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $47.45 and a 52 week high of $78.30.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.09. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. The firm had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.86 EPS. Wells Fargo & Company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

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.