Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Shares Down 6.7% After Analyst Downgrade

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)’s share price fell 6.7% on Friday after Truist Financial lowered their price target on the stock from $86.00 to $84.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company traded as low as $59.71 and last traded at $61.27. 8,072,519 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 53% from the average session volume of 17,127,259 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.67.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Compass Point raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $75.50.

Institutional Trading of Wells Fargo & Company

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rialto Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Investment Counsel Co. of Nevada bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. BNP Paribas acquired a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 126.7% during the 4th quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 424 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Wells Fargo & Company Trading Down 7.2 %

The business has a 50 day moving average of $74.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.56. The firm has a market cap of $198.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.32, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.86 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.