Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Increases Dividend to $0.50 Per Share

Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the bank on Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. This is a boost from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45.

Wintrust Financial has raised its dividend payment by an average of 13.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Wintrust Financial has a dividend payout ratio of 16.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Wintrust Financial to earn $10.81 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.7%.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Wintrust Financial stock opened at $133.03 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $131.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $116.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. Wintrust Financial has a twelve month low of $89.68 and a twelve month high of $142.04. The company has a market capitalization of $8.85 billion, a PE ratio of 12.90 and a beta of 1.20.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the firm posted $1.87 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Wintrust Financial will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WTFC. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $157.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial raised shares of Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $150.00 target price (up from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Thursday. Citigroup boosted their price target on Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $152.00 price target on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Wintrust Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.69.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wintrust Financial

In other news, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 4,099 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.63, for a total value of $473,967.37. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,892,420.93. The trade was a 8.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total value of $1,789,016.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 197,591 shares in the company, valued at $22,817,808.68. The trade was a 7.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.