Wells Fargo & Company Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:WFC)

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 412,749 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 402% compared to the average volume of 82,301 call options.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WFC opened at $61.23 on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1-year low of $37.18 and a 1-year high of $61.76. The stock has a market cap of $213.47 billion, a PE ratio of 12.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.86 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $20.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.19 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 12.30%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is currently 29.23%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the 1st quarter valued at $4,300,000. Cozad Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 1st quarter valued at $211,000. Hohimer Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the 1st quarter worth about $309,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 4,662,953 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $270,035,000 after purchasing an additional 48,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 86.6% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 528,859 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,653,000 after purchasing an additional 245,424 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on WFC. Raymond James raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Odeon Capital Group cut shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $48.80 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Argus upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $57.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.99.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.