William Blair Investment Management LLC Grows Stake in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 929,760 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,716 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in WaFd were worth $29,975,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 valued at $138,347,000 after purchasing an additional 195,845 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,135 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,318,000 after purchasing an additional 159,750 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 21.5% in the 3rd 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 period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,225,248 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,700,000 after purchasing an additional 84,155 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 736,564 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,747,000 after purchasing an additional 28,849 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

WaFd Stock Up 0.8 %

WaFd stock opened at $28.58 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.18. WaFd, Inc has a 12 month low of $25.79 and a 12 month high of $38.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

WaFd Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were issued a $0.27 dividend. This is a positive change from WaFd’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.78%. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.77%.

About WaFd

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.