Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Analysts

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) has earned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $110.69.

A number of analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Wintrust Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Barclays cut their target price on Wintrust Financial from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Hovde Group restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Wintrust Financial from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $110.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Tuesday, April 16th.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Shares of WTFC opened at $96.46 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $97.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $97.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.98 and a beta of 1.18. Wintrust Financial has a 52 week low of $71.86 and a 52 week high of $105.29.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The bank reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $604.77 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $577.80 million. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 13.09% and a net margin of 17.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.80 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Wintrust Financial will post 10.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 9th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 8th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.61%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wintrust Financial

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 3.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,452,753 shares of the bank’s stock worth $673,603,000 after acquiring an additional 244,168 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,866,032 shares of the bank’s stock worth $265,829,000 after acquiring an additional 80,526 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,843,679 shares of the bank’s stock worth $171,001,000 after acquiring an additional 79,672 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 4.6% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 1,638,085 shares of the bank’s stock worth $171,000,000 after acquiring an additional 72,082 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 54.6% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,330,263 shares of the bank’s stock worth $138,866,000 after acquiring an additional 469,640 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.48% 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.