Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC Buys Shares of 5,981 Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 5,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $338,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 4.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 19,848,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,178,591,000 after buying an additional 831,975 shares during the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 67.1% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 5,852,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $339,226,000 after buying an additional 2,349,595 shares during the last quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 2.1% during the second quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 5,278,666 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $313,500,000 after purchasing an additional 108,480 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 38.1% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,131,320 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $297,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,415,647 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 1.0% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 4,662,953 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $270,035,000 after purchasing an additional 48,419 shares during the period. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $68.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $62.00 to $61.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Wells Fargo & Company to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $59.00 in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.41.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:WFC opened at $54.98 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a market cap of $191.68 billion, a PE ratio of 11.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.16. Wells Fargo & Company has a 52 week low of $38.38 and a 52 week high of $62.55. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $55.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.76.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.29 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $20.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.29 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.17% and a return on equity of 12.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This is an increase from Wells Fargo & Company’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.35. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 32.85%.

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.