Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Reduces Stock Holdings in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lessened its stake in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,090,076 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 3,419 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership’s holdings in WaFd were worth $35,144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in WaFd by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,420,004 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $303,701,000 after purchasing an additional 166,931 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of WaFd by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,969,790 shares of the bank’s stock worth $138,347,000 after acquiring an additional 195,845 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in WaFd by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,774,081 shares of the bank’s stock worth $57,196,000 after purchasing an additional 234,977 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in WaFd by 10.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,135 shares of the bank’s stock worth $61,318,000 after purchasing an additional 159,750 shares during the period. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP increased its stake in WaFd by 21.5% during the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,432,523 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,923,000 after purchasing an additional 253,044 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WAFD. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of WaFd from $42.00 to $34.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $38.00 price objective on shares of WaFd in a research report on Friday, January 17th. DA Davidson cut WaFd from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $35.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of WaFd from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.75.

WaFd Stock Performance

Shares of WAFD opened at $28.31 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $29.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.31 billion, a PE ratio of 13.05 and a beta of 0.83. WaFd, Inc has a 52-week low of $25.79 and a 52-week high of $38.62. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

WaFd Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from WaFd’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.81%. WaFd’s payout ratio is presently 49.77%.

WaFd 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.