Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Short Interest Up 35.1% in January

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,310,000 shares, an increase of 35.1% from the January 15th total of 969,600 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 449,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wintrust Financial

In other Wintrust Financial news, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 3,186 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.30, for a total value of $418,321.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 48,814 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,409,278.20. This represents a 6.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.95, for a total transaction of $54,475.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,042.20. The trade was a 15.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,178 shares of company stock valued at $1,336,315 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,911,488 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $861,932,000 after acquiring an additional 58,162 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank’s stock worth $559,364,000 after buying an additional 637,072 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank’s stock worth $285,169,000 after buying an additional 126,724 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Wintrust Financial during the fourth quarter worth approximately $163,767,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 11.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank’s stock worth $141,981,000 after buying an additional 133,311 shares in the last quarter. 93.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WTFC has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $152.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.69.

Wintrust Financial Price Performance

NASDAQ WTFC opened at $129.61 on Friday. Wintrust Financial has a 52 week low of $91.38 and a 52 week high of $142.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market cap of $8.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.57 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $129.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $119.14.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.52% and a return on equity of 12.60%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.87 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Wintrust Financial will post 10.33 EPS for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 6th. This is a boost from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.40%.

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.