Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $123.00.

A number of research analysts recently commented on WTFC shares. Raymond James upped their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. DA Davidson upped 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. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wintrust Financial

In other news, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 4,099 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.63, for a total transaction of $473,967.37. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,892,420.93. The trade was a 8.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were 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 owns 197,591 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $22,817,808.68. The trade was a 7.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 21,198 shares of company stock worth $2,445,314 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Wintrust Financial

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank's stock worth $559,364,000 after buying an additional 637,072 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Wintrust Financial by 5.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,017,295 shares of the bank's stock valued at $297,376,000 after purchasing an additional 146,090 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank's stock worth $285,169,000 after purchasing an additional 126,724 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Wintrust Financial by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank's stock worth $141,981,000 after purchasing an additional 133,311 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 8.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,155,726 shares of the bank's stock valued at $125,464,000 after purchasing an additional 92,995 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.48% of the company's stock.

Wintrust Financial Price Performance

Shares of Wintrust Financial stock traded down $0.49 on Friday, hitting $138.01. 260,818 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 411,322. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $119.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $107.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.45 and a beta of 1.15. Wintrust Financial has a 1-year low of $84.96 and a 1-year high of $142.04.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $2.50 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $615.73 million during 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 company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.53 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Wintrust Financial will post 10.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Wintrust Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.