Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) Upgraded by Buckingham Research to Buy

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was upgraded by stock analysts at Buckingham Research from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $75.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $57.00. Buckingham Research’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 24.71% from the company’s previous close. The analysts noted that the move was a valuation call.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on WFC. Vetr downgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $54.49 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, November 2nd. UBS restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $56.00 target price (down previously from $59.00) on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Friday, September 15th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 12th. Piper Jaffray Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $50.00 target price (down previously from $52.00) on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Wednesday, September 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird restated a “buy” rating and issued a $58.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Tuesday, September 5th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Wells Fargo & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $57.75.

Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $60.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,544,500 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,500,486. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12 month low of $49.27 and a 12 month high of $61.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $297,228.38, a P/E ratio of 14.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.04 by ($0.20). Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 22.00% and a return on equity of 12.59%. The business had revenue of $21.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. equities analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 3.97 EPS for the current year.

In related news, insider Michael J. Loughlin sold 17,482 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.80, for a total transaction of $1,010,459.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Richard Levy sold 97,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.47, for a total value of $5,477,590.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 184,482 shares of company stock valued at $10,471,050 over the last three months. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 316,530 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,539,000 after acquiring an additional 1,856 shares in the last quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 272,548 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,102,000 after acquiring an additional 10,318 shares in the last quarter. Kelman Lazarov Inc. boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Kelman Lazarov Inc. now owns 64,172 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,556,000 after acquiring an additional 3,612 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 103,269 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,647 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Global Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Eagle Global Advisors LLC now owns 119,625 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,628,000 after acquiring an additional 2,172 shares in the last quarter. 75.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company is a bank holding company. The Company is a diversified financial services company. It has three operating segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Wealth and Investment Management. The Company offers its services under three categories: personal, small business and commercial.