Aljian Capital Management LLC Boosts Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Aljian Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 54.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,988 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,913 shares during the quarter. Aljian Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $982,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. PFG Advisors grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 3.6% in the third quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 101,761 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,748,000 after acquiring an additional 3,536 shares during the period. Sunpointe LLC purchased a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 3rd quarter worth $204,000. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 43,307 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,446,000 after purchasing an additional 1,030 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 106.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 48,233 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,725,000 after buying an additional 24,911 shares during the period. Finally, Transform Wealth LLC lifted its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 117.2% in the third quarter. Transform Wealth LLC now owns 228,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,913,000 after buying an additional 123,326 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WFC. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $67.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “market perform” 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $79.22 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $47.59 and a 52 week high of $81.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $74.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $263.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.18.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. Wells Fargo & Company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.02%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

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.