Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Receives $128.00 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC - Get Free Report) have earned an average rating of "Buy" from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $128.00.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WTFC shares. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays increased their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $130.00 to $151.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $157.00 target price on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total transaction of $1,789,016.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 197,591 shares in the company, valued at $22,817,808.68. This trade represents a 7.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 1,607 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.46, for a total value of $182,330.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 14,874 shares in the company, valued at $1,687,604.04. This represents a 9.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,198 shares of company stock valued at $2,445,314 over the last 90 days. 1.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wintrust Financial

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 14.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank's stock worth $559,364,000 after acquiring an additional 637,072 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 36.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,841 shares of the bank's stock worth $87,132,000 after purchasing an additional 213,559 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Wintrust Financial by 11.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank's stock valued at $141,981,000 after purchasing an additional 133,311 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank's stock valued at $285,169,000 after buying an additional 126,724 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 8.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,726 shares of the bank's stock worth $125,464,000 after buying an additional 92,995 shares during the period. 93.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wintrust Financial Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WTFC traded up $1.60 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $135.05. 906,566 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 379,144. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $130.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $115.65. Wintrust Financial has a 1 year low of $89.68 and a 1 year high of $142.04. The company has a market cap of $8.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.14 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.50 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $615.73 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $623.45 million. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 16.52% and a return on equity of 11.99%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Wintrust Financial will post 10.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. Wintrust Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.85%.

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.