Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 1,848 Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 49,636 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,848 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC owned 0.07% of Wintrust Financial worth $6,190,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 130,767 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,308,000 after buying an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 3,983 shares of the bank’s stock worth $497,000 after buying an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. PFG Advisors bought a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $211,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 35.1% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 15,241 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,901,000 after buying an additional 3,961 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 26.4% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 17,423 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,173,000 after buying an additional 3,641 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WTFC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $152.00 price target on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut shares of Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $150.00 price target (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Wintrust Financial presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $133.69.

Wintrust Financial Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of WTFC stock opened at $113.45 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $124.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $121.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.00. Wintrust Financial Co. has a 1 year low of $91.38 and a 1 year high of $142.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.00 and a beta of 1.16.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share 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 company earned $1.87 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. This is a boost from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.40%.

Insider Transactions at Wintrust Financial

In other news, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.95, for a total value of $54,475.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 2,276 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $298,042.20. This represents a 15.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 2,363 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.32, for a total value of $310,309.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 19,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,607,752.56. This represents a 10.63 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,178 shares of company stock valued at $1,336,315. 1.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.