Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Trading Down 8.5% on Analyst Downgrade

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) shares fell 8.5% on Thursday after Truist Financial lowered their price target on the stock from $86.00 to $84.00. Truist Financial currently has a buy rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company traded as low as $65.91 and last traded at $66.09. 9,175,152 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 46% from the average session volume of 17,079,163 shares. The stock had previously closed at $72.26.

WFC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $79.00 target price on Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays raised their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $82.00 to $73.50 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wells Fargo & Company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $75.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wells Fargo & Company

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,365,658,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 932.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,734,874 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,105,218,000 after purchasing an additional 14,210,193 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,954,600 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $336,375,000 after purchasing an additional 5,237,500 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 34,339,295 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,411,992,000 after purchasing an additional 3,307,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter worth approximately $198,801,000. 75.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $198.89 billion, a PE ratio of 11.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $74.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.44.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $20.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business's quarterly revenue was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. Research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.74%.

Wells Fargo & Company 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.