Access Investment Management LLC Buys 130 Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Access Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,855 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Access Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Wintrust Financial were worth $2,227,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank’s stock worth $559,364,000 after purchasing an additional 637,072 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank’s stock worth $285,169,000 after buying an additional 126,724 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 11.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank’s stock worth $141,981,000 after buying an additional 133,311 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 8.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,726 shares of the bank’s stock worth $125,464,000 after buying an additional 92,995 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 36.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,841 shares of the bank’s stock worth $87,132,000 after buying an additional 213,559 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WTFC. UBS Group began coverage on Wintrust Financial in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $157.00 price target for the company. Truist Financial upgraded Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com lowered Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $150.00 target price (up from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $155.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wintrust Financial currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 3,186 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.30, for a total transaction of $418,321.80. Following the sale, the insider now owns 48,814 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,409,278.20. This represents a 6.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 2,363 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.32, for a total value of $310,309.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 19,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,607,752.56. This represents a 10.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,178 shares of company stock worth $1,336,315 over the last three months. 1.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Wintrust Financial stock opened at $123.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $129.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $120.17. Wintrust Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $91.38 and a 52-week high of $142.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.01 and a beta of 1.19.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 17.52%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.87 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is a positive change from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.40%.

Wintrust Financial Profile

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.