Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $118.23.

Several research analysts have commented on WTFC shares. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $118.00 to $116.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. DA Davidson upped their target price on Wintrust Financial from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Wintrust Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $110.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Friday, July 19th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wintrust Financial

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,452,753 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $673,603,000 after buying an additional 244,168 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in Wintrust Financial by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 258,610 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $23,986,000 after acquiring an additional 14,409 shares during the last quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC boosted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 13.8% in the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 538,489 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,945,000 after acquiring an additional 65,179 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 157.6% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 190,416 shares of the bank’s stock worth $19,878,000 after purchasing an additional 116,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp increased its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 61.0% during the fourth quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 32,113 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,978,000 after purchasing an additional 12,165 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Wintrust Financial Price Performance

Wintrust Financial stock opened at $108.26 on Tuesday. Wintrust Financial has a 52-week low of $71.86 and a 52-week high of $113.68. The company has a market cap of $6.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.20 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $104.83 and its 200 day moving average is $100.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The bank reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by ($0.10). Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.02% and a return on equity of 12.71%. The business had revenue of $591.76 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $587.33 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Wintrust Financial will post 10.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 8th. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is 18.61%.

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.