Royce & Associates LP Cuts Stake in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Royce & Associates LP lowered its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 12.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,713 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 11,941 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Wintrust Financial were worth $9,085,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of WTFC. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in Wintrust Financial by 825.0% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 296 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Wintrust Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Wintrust Financial by 62.0% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 512 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Wintrust Financial by 77.9% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 653 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Wintrust Financial by 62.6% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 818 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Shares of WTFC stock opened at $131.76 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.80 and a beta of 1.15. Wintrust Financial Co. has a one year low of $82.90 and a one year high of $136.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $113.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $105.13.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.50 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $615.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $623.45 million. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 16.52%. Wintrust Financial’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.53 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.12 EPS for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTFC has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $123.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson boosted their target price 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. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wintrust Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $123.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wintrust Financial news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total value of $1,789,016.16. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 197,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,817,808.68. This represents a 7.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 4,099 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.63, for a total transaction of $473,967.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,311 shares in the company, valued at $4,892,420.93. This trade represents a 8.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,198 shares of company stock worth $2,445,314 in the last ninety days. 1.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.