Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Buys Shares of 15,469 WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 15,469 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $499,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WAFD. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its stake in WaFd by 21.5% in the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,432,523 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,923,000 after acquiring an additional 253,044 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,969,790 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $138,347,000 after buying an additional 195,845 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,135 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,318,000 after buying an additional 159,750 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 28.6% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 428,504 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,933,000 after buying an additional 95,251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,225,248 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,700,000 after buying an additional 84,155 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on WAFD. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of WaFd from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. DA Davidson cut shares of WaFd from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $35.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of WaFd from $42.00 to $34.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $38.00 price target on shares of WaFd in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, WaFd currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.75.

WaFd Stock Performance

NASDAQ WAFD opened at $27.66 on Friday. WaFd, Inc has a 1 year low of $25.79 and a 1 year high of $38.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.26 billion, a PE ratio of 12.75 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.03.

WaFd Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This is a boost from WaFd’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.90%. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.77%.

WaFd Company Profile

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts.