Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) to Issue $0.45 Quarterly Dividend

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 25th, NASDAQ reports. Investors of record on Thursday, August 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the bank on Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 8th.

Wintrust Financial has raised its dividend by an average of 12.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Wintrust Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 17.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Wintrust Financial to earn $10.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.6%.

Wintrust Financial Trading Up 1.2 %

WTFC stock traded up $1.26 during trading on Friday, reaching $110.13. 402,587 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 384,313. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.40 and a beta of 1.18. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $98.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $98.27. Wintrust Financial has a 1 year low of $71.86 and a 1 year high of $113.68.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The bank reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $591.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $587.33 million. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.02% and a return on equity of 12.71%. The company’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.38 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Wintrust Financial will post 10.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTFC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $115.00 to $113.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Wintrust Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $115.00 in a report on Friday, July 19th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Wintrust Financial from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Wintrust Financial from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $117.85.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.