Baron Wealth Management LLC Purchases 547 Shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Baron Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 12.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,836 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 547 shares during the quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $340,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 15.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 6,789,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $383,532,000 after purchasing an additional 897,195 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 2.5% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,641,581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $375,183,000 after acquiring an additional 162,066 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 6,284,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $441,983,000 after acquiring an additional 575,892 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,954,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $336,375,000 after acquiring an additional 5,237,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $160,529,000. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WFC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Phillip Securities raised Wells Fargo & Company from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $60.83 to $65.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

NYSE:WFC opened at $78.41 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. Wells Fargo & Company has a twelve month low of $47.45 and a twelve month high of $78.98. The company has a fifty day moving average of $73.35 and a 200-day moving average of $64.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $261.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.18.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The business’s revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 7th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

Wells Fargo & Company Profile

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.