Lafayette Investments Inc. Sells 1,500 Shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Lafayette Investments Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 8.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 16,245 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,500 shares during the period. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $800,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WFC. First Financial Corp IN lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. First Financial Corp IN now owns 4,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $226,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 20,280 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $998,000 after acquiring an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. ERTS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. ERTS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,733 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $331,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership now owns 14,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $704,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 1,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Compass Point restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $54.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $62.00 target price (up previously from $56.00) on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $57.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 1st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.85.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 3.4 %

NYSE WFC traded up $2.02 during trading on Friday, reaching $60.76. 11,192,252 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,653,197. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $215.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.68. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12-month low of $36.40 and a 12-month high of $60.79.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.10. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 12.30%. The business had revenue of $20.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.19 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 2nd were issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 1st. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.23%.

Wells Fargo & Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.