Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Sells 3,613 Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. cut its position in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 77,399 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 3,613 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Wintrust Financial were worth $9,652,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 2.5% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 9,058 shares of the bank’s stock worth $893,000 after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 17,286 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,704,000 after buying an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC acquired a new stake in Wintrust Financial in the second quarter valued at about $1,115,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in Wintrust Financial in the second quarter valued at about $1,555,000. Finally, Vest Financial LLC raised its stake in Wintrust Financial by 38.9% during the second quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 11,794 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,162,000 after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on WTFC. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $157.00 price target on the stock. Barclays lifted their target price on Wintrust Financial from $130.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price target on Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wintrust Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $128.00.

Wintrust Financial Stock Down 4.3 %

WTFC traded down $5.52 during trading on Friday, hitting $122.74. 115,849 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 346,646. Wintrust Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $89.68 and a fifty-two week high of $142.04. The stock has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.85 and a beta of 1.20. The business’s 50 day moving average is $129.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $114.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.50 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $615.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $623.45 million. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 16.52%. The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.53 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is 18.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total value of $1,789,016.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 197,591 shares in the company, valued at $22,817,808.68. This represents a 7.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 1,607 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.46, for a total transaction of $182,330.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 14,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,687,604.04. This trade represents a 9.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 21,198 shares of company stock worth $2,445,314. 1.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Wintrust Financial

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.