ZEGA Investments LLC Acquires New Position in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

ZEGA Investments LLC bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,623 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $611,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% in the 2nd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 949,769,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $76,095,550,000 after buying an additional 949,735,001 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 277.4% during the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,740,934 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $771,092,000 after purchasing an additional 7,894,919 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the first quarter valued at about $109,643,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 34.6% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,307,366 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $381,016,000 after acquiring an additional 1,365,629 shares during the period. Finally, Phoenix Financial Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 437.6% during the 2nd quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd. now owns 1,312,103 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $105,120,000 after buying an additional 1,068,040 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:WFC opened at $86.05 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $83.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.27. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $58.42 and a fifty-two week high of $88.50. The company has a market capitalization of $270.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $21.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.11 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 12.51%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.42 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th will be given a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 7th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is currently 29.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on WFC. Barclays increased their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Cfra Research raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 16th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.57.

Wells Fargo & Company 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.