California Public Employees Retirement System Reduces Holdings in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,196,782 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 355,346 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.19% of Wells Fargo & Company worth $496,486,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WFC. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 62.3% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 66,233 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,652,000 after buying an additional 25,436 shares during the last quarter. WBH Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the 1st quarter worth about $201,000. Savvy Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 12.4% during the 1st quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 12,793 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $918,000 after purchasing an additional 1,408 shares during the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the first quarter valued at about $589,000. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 13.9% in the first quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 23,380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,678,000 after purchasing an additional 2,848 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $95.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 4th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, Cfra Research raised Wells Fargo & Company to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $89.57.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Down 0.4%

WFC stock opened at $89.86 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $282.08 billion, a PE ratio of 14.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $84.63 and its 200 day moving average is $81.12. Wells Fargo & Company has a one year low of $58.42 and a one year high of $91.11.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.18. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.18% and a return on equity of 12.51%. The business had revenue of $21.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 7th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 7th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.61%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

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.