Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $12.58 Million Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 6.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 179,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,500 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $12,580,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% in 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 purchasing an additional 5,237,500 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP bought a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $160,529,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 158.1% in the third 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 buying an additional 1,659,716 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 410.8% during the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 1,374,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,567,000 after acquiring an additional 1,105,679 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 15.2% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 6,789,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $383,532,000 after acquiring an additional 897,195 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on WFC shares. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $60.83 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

NYSE WFC opened at $79.66 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $73.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.64. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52-week low of $47.59 and a 52-week high of $81.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $265.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.18.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.86 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.74%.

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.