Wells Fargo & Company Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:WFC)

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 158,210 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 123% compared to the typical daily volume of 70,902 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WFC. UBS Group increased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.83 to $65.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.39.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wells Fargo & Company

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WFC. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cardinal Capital Management Inc. now owns 575,419 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,505,000 after purchasing an additional 11,037 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 37.2% during the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 638,233 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,055,000 after buying an additional 173,083 shares during the period. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp lifted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 17.4% in the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 177,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,031,000 after acquiring an additional 26,320 shares during the last quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 132,829 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,504,000 after acquiring an additional 18,717 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argus Investors Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 34.6% in the 3rd quarter. Argus Investors Counsel Inc. now owns 31,514 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,780,000 after purchasing an additional 8,107 shares during the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wells Fargo & Company Trading Up 1.7 %

NYSE WFC traded up $1.40 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $81.45. The company had a trading volume of 11,693,850 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,810,402. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $271.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $73.72 and a 200 day moving average of $65.16. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1-year low of $47.45 and a 1-year high of $81.40.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its 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. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The firm had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.86 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 Tuesday, January 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is 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.