Fisher Asset Management LLC Reduces Stake in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

Fisher Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 22,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,619 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $1,840,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of WFC. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% during the 2nd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 949,769,723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,095,550,000 after buying an additional 949,735,001 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the second quarter valued at $3,990,551,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 54.9% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 16,635,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,332,851,000 after acquiring an additional 5,894,747 shares during the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 8,010.7% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,973,730 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $158,135,000 after acquiring an additional 1,949,395 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 1st quarter worth about $109,643,000. 75.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WFC has been the subject of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.57.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

WFC opened at $89.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $282.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.78, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12-month low of $58.42 and a 12-month high of $91.11. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.08.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.18. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 12.51%. The company had revenue of $21.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.42 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 7th were given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.61%.

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.