Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes Position in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 17,200 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,595,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Wintrust Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $245,000. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 151.6% during the fourth quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 100,104 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,285,000 after purchasing an additional 60,321 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 2,131.7% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 73,913 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,855,000 after purchasing an additional 70,601 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 94,350 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,751,000 after purchasing an additional 4,582 shares during the period. Finally, Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. raised its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 9.9% during the fourth quarter. Comprehensive Financial Consultants Institutional Inc. now owns 9,210 shares of the bank’s stock worth $854,000 after purchasing an additional 828 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Wintrust Financial

In other news, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.88, for a total transaction of $57,553.44. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,410 shares in the company, valued at approximately $333,770.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Edward J. Wehmer sold 9,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total transaction of $943,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 177,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,599,040.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 588 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.88, for a total value of $57,553.44. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $333,770.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on WTFC shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Wintrust Financial from $109.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Wintrust Financial from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Wintrust Financial from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Wintrust Financial from $111.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Wintrust Financial from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $112.92.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Shares of WTFC stock opened at $97.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Wintrust Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $58.12 and a fifty-two week high of $105.29. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $98.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $90.73. The firm has a market cap of $6.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.06 and a beta of 1.21.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The bank reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.42 by $0.47. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 13.09% and a net margin of 17.86%. The company had revenue of $604.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $577.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.80 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 9.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 8th were given a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 7th. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.61%.

Wintrust Financial Company Profile

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.