WSFS Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WSFS) Short Interest Update

WSFS Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WSFS) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,840,000 shares, an increase of 42.6% from the February 28th total of 1,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 302,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.1 days. Approximately 3.2% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Activity

In other WSFS Financial news, CEO Rodger Levenson sold 7,199 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.20, for a total value of $397,384.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 142,780 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,881,456. This represents a 4.80 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in WSFS Financial by 2,500.0% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 572 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 550 shares during the last quarter. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of WSFS Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of WSFS Financial in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. AlphaQuest LLC purchased a new stake in shares of WSFS Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $84,000. Finally, Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in WSFS Financial by 804.4% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,863 shares of the bank’s stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 1,657 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WSFS. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $68.00 target price on shares of WSFS Financial in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on WSFS Financial from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, WSFS Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.75.

WSFS Financial Stock Performance

Shares of WSFS stock opened at $51.78 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.06. WSFS Financial has a 52 week low of $41.33 and a 52 week high of $62.75. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.95.

WSFS Financial (NASDAQ:WSFS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The bank reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.13. WSFS Financial had a net margin of 18.77% and a return on equity of 10.30%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that WSFS Financial will post 4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

WSFS Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 7th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. WSFS Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.57%.

WSFS Financial Company Profile

WSFS Financial Corporation operates as the savings and loan holding company for the Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB that provides various banking services in the United States. It operates through three segments: WSFS Bank, Cash Connect, and Wealth Management. It offers various deposit products, including savings accounts, demand deposits, interest-bearing demand deposits, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit, as well as accepts jumbo certificates of deposit from individuals, businesses, and municipalities.