Madison Investment Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 41,587 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,921,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WFC. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 158.1% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 2,709,659 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $153,069,000 after acquiring an additional 1,659,716 shares in the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 410.8% during the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 1,374,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $96,567,000 after acquiring an additional 1,105,679 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 81.6% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,981,130 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $111,914,000 after buying an additional 889,953 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 63.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,962,302 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $137,832,000 after buying an additional 758,893 shares during the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $72.51 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $69.34. The company has a market cap of $238.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $50.15 and a fifty-two week high of $81.50.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $20.38 billion for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 7th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WFC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $62.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.39.

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.