Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys 14,477 Shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 13.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 120,843 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,477 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $8,488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in WFC. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in Wells Fargo & Company in the 2nd quarter valued at $225,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the second quarter valued at about $272,000. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 9.7% in the second quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. now owns 21,947 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after acquiring an additional 1,944 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.6% during the second quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 42,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,521,000 after acquiring an additional 274 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 607,195 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,546,000 after purchasing an additional 86,777 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WFC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wolfe Research raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays increased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $61.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, 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 report on Tuesday, November 19th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.92.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $75.86 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $72.41 and a 200-day moving average of $63.15. The company has a market capitalization of $252.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.18. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1 year low of $46.12 and a 1 year high of $78.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is presently 33.26%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.