Private Management Group Inc. Raises Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Private Management Group Inc. grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 2.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,160 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Private Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $1,091,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 131.0% during the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,453,854 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $141,124,000 after acquiring an additional 1,958,483 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 42.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,780,421 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $285,668,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729,132 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 87.8% in the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 3,314,853 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $163,160,000 after purchasing an additional 1,549,979 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the third quarter valued at approximately $54,894,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 37.7% in the third quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 4,260,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $174,078,000 after purchasing an additional 1,166,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Compass Point restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up from $57.00) on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.85.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of Wells Fargo & Company stock traded down $0.34 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $60.60. 19,633,805 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 19,001,326. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $56.37 and its 200 day moving average is $49.26. The stock has a market cap of $214.55 billion, a PE ratio of 12.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12 month low of $36.40 and a 12 month high of $61.76.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.20 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $20.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.19 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 12.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.06 EPS for the current year.

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.