Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. Purchases New Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Pacific Capital Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,266 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $112,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of WFC. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 38,197,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,560,755,000 after acquiring an additional 129,300 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 23,237,905 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,143,770,000 after purchasing an additional 526,178 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.9% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 18,269,318 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $746,484,000 after purchasing an additional 335,560 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 40.4% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 9,308,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $458,162,000 after purchasing an additional 2,677,050 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC increased its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 7,749,883 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $316,660,000 after buying an additional 221,459 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WFC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $57.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Raymond James increased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.99.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WFC traded up $0.97 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $61.23. 18,626,876 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,897,705. Wells Fargo & Company has a twelve month low of $37.18 and a twelve month high of $61.76. The firm has a market cap of $213.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $57.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $50.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $20.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.19 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.30% and a net margin of 15.63%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.08 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.29%. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is 29.23%.

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.