Zacks Research Equities Analysts Increase Earnings Estimates for WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) – Analysts at Zacks Research lifted their Q1 2025 earnings per share estimates for shares of WaFd in a research report issued on Wednesday, October 16th. Zacks Research analyst S. Shah now anticipates that the bank will post earnings per share of $0.72 for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $0.71. The consensus estimate for WaFd’s current full-year earnings is $3.00 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for WaFd’s Q4 2025 earnings at $0.84 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $3.03 EPS.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on WAFD. StockNews.com downgraded shares of WaFd from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of WaFd from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, WaFd presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.25.

WaFd Trading Up 1.9 %

WaFd stock opened at $36.77 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.11. WaFd has a 52 week low of $23.36 and a 52 week high of $37.49. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $35.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.77 and a beta of 0.83.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.18. WaFd had a net margin of 14.13% and a return on equity of 9.58%. The business had revenue of $194.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $185.36 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.89 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Institutional Trading of WaFd

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of WaFd by 515.8% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,558 shares of the bank’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 1,305 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in WaFd by 100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,644 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 822 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in WaFd during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $80,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of WaFd during the third quarter worth $194,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in WaFd in the 1st quarter valued at about $194,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

WaFd Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Friday, August 23rd were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.77%.

WaFd Company 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.