Retirement Systems of Alabama Acquires 265 Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 76,696 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 265 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned 0.13% of Wintrust Financial worth $7,114,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of WTFC. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 11.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,651,381 shares of the bank’s stock worth $351,179,000 after acquiring an additional 480,942 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,172,242 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $88,504,000 after purchasing an additional 207,606 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 788,615 shares of the bank’s stock worth $73,144,000 after purchasing an additional 11,969 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 60.4% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 716,253 shares of the bank’s stock worth $54,077,000 after buying an additional 269,731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its position in Wintrust Financial by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 716,105 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $66,419,000 after buying an additional 63,899 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on WTFC. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $115.00 to $113.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com raised Wintrust Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $117.00 to $112.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Wintrust Financial from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $112.33.

Wintrust Financial Stock Up 0.7 %

WTFC opened at $100.73 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.22 billion, a PE ratio of 10.42 and a beta of 1.21. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $92.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. Wintrust Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $58.12 and a 52 week high of $105.29.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The bank reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by $0.47. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 13.09% and a net margin of 17.86%. The company had revenue of $604.77 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $577.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 9th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 8th. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.61%.

Insider Activity at Wintrust Financial

In other news, insider Edward J. Wehmer sold 9,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total value of $943,920.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 177,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,599,040.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.