Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $117.85.

Several brokerages recently commented on WTFC. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Wintrust Financial from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Barclays dropped their target price on Wintrust Financial from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Wintrust Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Hovde Group reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Wintrust Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $115.00 in a report on Friday, July 19th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WTFC. Capital International Investors boosted its position in Wintrust Financial by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,566,003 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $145,247,000 after purchasing an additional 693,452 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Wintrust Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $61,898,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Wintrust Financial by 136.7% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 860,623 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $79,823,000 after purchasing an additional 497,065 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Wintrust Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,267,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Wintrust Financial by 102.2% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 596,632 shares of the bank’s stock worth $55,338,000 after acquiring an additional 301,528 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ WTFC opened at $100.62 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.41 and a beta of 1.18. Wintrust Financial has a 1-year low of $71.86 and a 1-year high of $113.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $99.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.87.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The bank reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.42 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $591.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $587.33 million. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.02% and a return on equity of 12.71%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.38 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Wintrust Financial will post 10.12 EPS for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th will be given a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is 18.61%.

About Wintrust Financial

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.