JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Price Target to $73.50

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) had its price objective trimmed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $82.00 to $73.50 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on WFC. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Wells Fargo & Company from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $79.00 price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Monday, March 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.50.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of Wells Fargo & Company stock opened at $60.91 on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company has a one year low of $50.15 and a one year high of $81.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $198.89 billion, a PE ratio of 11.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.02.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.86 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.63%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.74%.

Institutional Trading of Wells Fargo & Company

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,365,658,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 34,339,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,411,992,000 after acquiring an additional 3,307,855 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 20,369,222 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,430,742,000 after purchasing an additional 238,131 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 932.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,734,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,105,218,000 after buying an additional 14,210,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,914,098 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $977,338,000 after buying an additional 62,099 shares during the last quarter. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.