Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $117.85.

WTFC has been the topic of several research reports. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $120.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $107.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price 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. Hovde Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Wintrust Financial from $113.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 19th.

Wintrust Financial Stock Performance

Shares of WTFC opened at $102.85 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $100.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $6.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.64 and a beta of 1.18. Wintrust Financial has a twelve month low of $71.86 and a twelve month high of $113.68.

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

Wintrust Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.61%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wintrust Financial

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. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 5.9% in 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 increased 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 during the last quarter. Access Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Wintrust Financial in the fourth quarter valued at $1,624,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $19,878,000 after acquiring an additional 116,503 shares during 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.