Allstate Corp Buys Shares of 101,579 Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Allstate Corp bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 101,579 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,135,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the fourth quarter valued at $3,365,658,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 5,237,500 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter worth $117,026,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 158.1% in the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 1,659,716 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter worth $85,031,000. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on WFC. Morgan Stanley set a $79.00 target price on Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Royal Bank of Canada raised Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $73.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.55.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

NYSE WFC traded down $5.39 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $66.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 13,140,653 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,093,658. The company has a market cap of $218.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12 month low of $50.15 and a 12 month high of $81.50. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.43.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.74%.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

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.