119,443 Shares in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Purchased by Lightrock Netherlands B.V.

Lightrock Netherlands B.V. acquired a new stake in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 119,443 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $14,970,000. Wintrust Financial comprises about 5.2% of Lightrock Netherlands B.V.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank’s stock worth $559,364,000 after purchasing an additional 637,072 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank’s stock worth $285,169,000 after buying an additional 126,724 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $141,981,000 after buying an additional 133,311 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 8.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,726 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $125,464,000 after acquiring an additional 92,995 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Wintrust Financial by 36.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,841 shares of the bank’s stock worth $87,132,000 after acquiring an additional 213,559 shares during the period. 93.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $157.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Wintrust Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective (up from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wintrust Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.69.

Insider Activity at Wintrust Financial

In other Wintrust Financial news, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 416 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.95, for a total value of $54,475.20. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,042.20. This represents a 15.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 2,363 shares of Wintrust Financial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $131.32, for a total transaction of $310,309.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 19,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,607,752.56. This trade represents a 10.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,178 shares of company stock valued at $1,336,315 over the last 90 days. 1.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WTFC opened at $129.07 on Tuesday. Wintrust Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $90.29 and a 52 week high of $142.04. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $129.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The company has a market cap of $8.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.52 and a beta of 1.19.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 17.52%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.87 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. This is a positive change from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.40%.

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.