Vanguard Group Inc. Reduces Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 301,877,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,152,517 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.09% of Wells Fargo & Company worth $21,203,867,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 120.7% during the fourth quarter. Blueprint Investment Partners LLC now owns 10,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $768,000 after purchasing an additional 5,978 shares during the period. Guardian Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the fourth quarter worth $4,242,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the fourth quarter worth $85,031,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 179,743 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,625,000 after acquiring an additional 2,498 shares during the period. Finally, Plancorp LLC lifted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 14,889 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,046,000 after acquiring an additional 1,264 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Compass Point raised their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group raised their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WFC opened at $72.51 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $75.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $238.43 billion, a PE ratio of 13.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1 year low of $50.15 and a 1 year high of $81.50.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.86 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 7th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.74%.

Wells Fargo & 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.