Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. Buys 695 Shares of WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC)

Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its stake in WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) by 12.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,331 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 695 shares during the quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc.’s holdings in WesBanco were worth $206,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in shares of WesBanco in the 3rd quarter valued at about $116,114,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in WesBanco by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,710,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $218,361,000 after purchasing an additional 705,483 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in WesBanco during the third quarter worth approximately $12,333,000. MCF Advisors LLC raised its stake in WesBanco by 17,801.0% in the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 170,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,626,000 after buying an additional 170,000 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of WesBanco in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,345,000. 61.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

WesBanco Trading Down 3.0 %

WSBC stock opened at $30.86 on Monday. WesBanco, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.56 and a 52 week high of $37.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.00. The company has a market capitalization of $2.07 billion, a PE ratio of 13.78 and a beta of 0.84.

WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.17. WesBanco had a net margin of 15.89% and a return on equity of 6.30%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that WesBanco, Inc. will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current year.

WesBanco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.80%. WesBanco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.07%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WSBC. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $39.00 target price on shares of WesBanco in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Raymond James upgraded shares of WesBanco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $44.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of WesBanco from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of WesBanco from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $40.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of WesBanco from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, WesBanco has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.83.

WesBanco Company Profile

WesBanco, Inc operates as the bank holding company for WesBanco Bank, Inc that provides retail banking, corporate banking, personal and corporate trust, brokerage, mortgage banking, and insurance services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Community Banking, and Trust and Investment Services.