Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Shares Acquired by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Rakuten Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 126.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 424 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 237 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $30,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Essential Planning LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth about $9,366,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth about $10,639,000. Truvestments Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 37.3% during the 4th quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 714 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares in the last quarter. Summit X LLC boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Summit X LLC now owns 3,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $278,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avantax Planning Partners Inc. boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Avantax Planning Partners Inc. now owns 11,765 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $826,000 after acquiring an additional 1,204 shares in the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WFC. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada raised Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $67.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

WFC opened at $68.35 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $224.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.71, 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. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.74. 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 results 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. The business had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. The company’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.