Short Interest in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) Decreases By 31.2%

WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) saw a significant decrease in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,520,000 shares, a decrease of 31.2% from the October 15th total of 2,210,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 534,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Ryan Mauer sold 12,132 shares of WaFd stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.33, for a total value of $404,359.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 100,376 shares in the company, valued at $3,345,532.08. This trade represents a 10.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.25% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of WaFd

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in WaFd by 353.2% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 102,577 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,978,000 after acquiring an additional 79,942 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in WaFd by 94.4% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 34,046 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $988,000 after buying an additional 16,534 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new position in WaFd in the first quarter valued at about $653,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in WaFd by 24.1% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 139,530 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,988,000 after buying an additional 27,100 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in WaFd by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,902,461 shares of the bank’s stock worth $229,408,000 after buying an additional 125,020 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WAFD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on WaFd from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Stephens boosted their price target on WaFd from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on WaFd from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of WaFd in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.00.

WaFd Stock Performance

NASDAQ WAFD opened at $36.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $35.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.91 and a beta of 0.83. WaFd has a fifty-two week low of $25.78 and a fifty-two week high of $38.58.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.01. WaFd had a net margin of 13.97% and a return on equity of 9.44%. The firm had revenue of $389.98 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.43 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that WaFd will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current year.

WaFd Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.81%. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.94%.

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.