Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at UBS Group

UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) in a report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $157.00 price objective on the bank’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on WTFC. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Wintrust Financial from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Raymond James raised their target price on Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $130.00 to $151.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wintrust Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $128.00.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Wintrust Financial stock opened at $122.72 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $126.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $110.71. Wintrust Financial has a 52 week low of $89.68 and a 52 week high of $142.04. The company has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a PE ratio of 12.85 and a beta of 1.18.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.50 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $615.73 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $623.45 million. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 16.52% and a return on equity of 11.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.53 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Wintrust Financial will post 10.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is currently 18.85%.

Insider Activity

In other Wintrust Financial news, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 1,607 shares of Wintrust Financial stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.46, for a total transaction of $182,330.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,687,604.04. The trade was a 9.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Richard B. Murphy sold 4,099 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.63, for a total transaction of $473,967.37. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,311 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,892,420.93. The trade was a 8.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 21,198 shares of company stock worth $2,445,314. 1.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $559,364,000 after purchasing an additional 637,072 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 36.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,841 shares of the bank’s stock worth $87,132,000 after buying an additional 213,559 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,017,295 shares of the bank’s stock worth $297,376,000 after acquiring an additional 146,090 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Wintrust Financial by 11.3% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank’s stock worth $141,981,000 after acquiring an additional 133,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 5.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $285,169,000 after acquiring an additional 126,724 shares during the last quarter. 93.48% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.