Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Takes $202,000 Position in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,623 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WTFC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,911,488 shares of the bank’s stock worth $861,932,000 after purchasing an additional 58,162 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 15,980 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,993,000 after acquiring an additional 3,622 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in shares of Wintrust Financial during the fourth quarter worth $1,684,000. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Wintrust Financial by 261.4% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 698,628 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $87,126,000 after acquiring an additional 505,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in Wintrust Financial in the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on WTFC shares. UBS Group started coverage on Wintrust Financial in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $157.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 15th. Truist Financial upgraded Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $151.00 to $156.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $150.00 price objective (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $133.69.

Wintrust Financial Trading Down 1.5 %

WTFC opened at $112.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $123.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $122.15. Wintrust Financial Co. has a one year low of $91.38 and a one year high of $142.04. The stock has a market cap of $7.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.87 and a beta of 1.16.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 17.52%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.87 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.36 EPS for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. This is a boost from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is 19.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 416 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.95, for a total transaction of $54,475.20. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 2,276 shares in the company, valued at approximately $298,042.20. This trade represents a 15.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 2,363 shares of Wintrust Financial stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.32, for a total value of $310,309.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 19,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,607,752.56. The trade was a 10.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,178 shares of company stock worth $1,336,315 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.47% of the company’s stock.

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.