Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,508,878 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 352,288 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $527,424,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WFC. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings 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 valued at $336,375,000 after acquiring an additional 5,237,500 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the third quarter valued at $160,529,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,659,716 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP lifted its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 410.8% during the 4th quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 1,374,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,567,000 after buying an additional 1,105,679 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 15.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 6,789,371 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $383,532,000 after acquiring an additional 897,195 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WFC. Barclays boosted their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $84.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of WFC stock opened at $81.45 on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $47.45 and a fifty-two week high of $81.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $271.18 billion, a PE ratio of 15.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.16.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.09. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The company had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.86 EPS. Wells Fargo & Company’s quarterly revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is 29.74%.

Wells Fargo & 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.