WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) Shares Sold by Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. cut its position in shares of WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) by 8.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,515 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in WesBanco were worth $523,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WSBC. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in WesBanco during the third quarter valued at about $116,114,000. Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new position in shares of WesBanco during the 3rd quarter valued at about $12,333,000. F M Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of WesBanco in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $7,726,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of WesBanco by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 695,487 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,712,000 after purchasing an additional 142,597 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in WesBanco by 466.7% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 152,858 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,266,000 after purchasing an additional 125,883 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 61.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on WSBC. Raymond James upgraded shares of WesBanco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Stephens lifted their target price on WesBanco from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at WesBanco

In other news, EVP Michael L. Perkins sold 1,125 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.87, for a total transaction of $39,228.75. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 46,817 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,508.79. The trade was a 2.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 3.44% of the company’s stock.

WesBanco Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:WSBC opened at $31.43 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.86. WesBanco, Inc. has a 52 week low of $25.56 and a 52 week high of $37.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a PE ratio of 15.04 and a beta of 0.85.

WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $243.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.40 million. WesBanco had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.79%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.59 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that WesBanco, Inc. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

WesBanco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This is a positive change from WesBanco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.71%. WesBanco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.81%.

About WesBanco

WesBanco, Inc operates as the bank holding company for WesBanco Bank, Inc that provides retail banking, corporate banking, personal and corporate trust, brokerage, mortgage banking, and insurance services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Community Banking, and Trust and Investment Services.