Northstar Group Inc. Acquires New Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Northstar Group Inc. bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 3,474 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $244,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WFC. National Pension Service increased its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 15.2% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 6,789,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $383,532,000 after buying an additional 897,195 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,641,581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $375,183,000 after acquiring an additional 162,066 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,284,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $441,983,000 after purchasing an additional 575,892 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,954,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $336,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,237,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the third quarter valued at approximately $160,529,000. 75.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $67.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

Shares of WFC stock opened at $80.76 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $268.89 billion, a PE ratio of 15.01, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $73.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52-week low of $47.47 and a 52-week high of $81.50.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.09. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The business had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.58 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.86 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.98%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

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.