Public Sector Pension Investment Board Acquires 9,446 Shares of WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) by 6.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 148,684 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,446 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned about 0.18% of WaFd worth $4,249,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in WaFd during the second quarter worth approximately $80,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of WaFd during the 1st quarter valued at $194,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in shares of WaFd by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 6,887 shares of the bank’s stock worth $200,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares in the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of WaFd in the second quarter worth $205,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in WaFd by 21.7% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 7,322 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $210,000 after purchasing an additional 1,305 shares in the last quarter. 83.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

WaFd Stock Performance

WaFd stock opened at $34.28 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.78 billion, a PE ratio of 13.03 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. WaFd, Inc has a 12-month low of $23.36 and a 12-month high of $37.49. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $35.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.48.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The bank reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $194.44 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $185.36 million. WaFd had a net margin of 14.13% and a return on equity of 9.58%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.89 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that WaFd, Inc will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WaFd Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. WaFd’s payout ratio is 39.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of WaFd from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, WaFd has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.25.

About WaFd

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.