U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) Price Target Raised to $62.00

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) had its price objective raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $62.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on USB. Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 target price on shares of U.S. Bancorp in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley raised U.S. Bancorp from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $57.00 in a report on Monday, September 30th. DA Davidson increased their target price on U.S. Bancorp from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada set a $53.00 price target on U.S. Bancorp in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Stephens upped their price objective on U.S. Bancorp from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.22.

U.S. Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of USB stock opened at $49.90 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $46.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $77.85 billion, a PE ratio of 15.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.02. U.S. Bancorp has a 52-week low of $36.49 and a 52-week high of $51.76.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.04. U.S. Bancorp had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 12.92%. The business had revenue of $6.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that U.S. Bancorp will post 3.93 EPS for the current year.

U.S. Bancorp declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 12th that permits the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

U.S. Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This is an increase from U.S. Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.01%. U.S. Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Jodi L. Richard sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.03, for a total value of $1,225,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 129,790 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,363,603.70. This represents a 16.15 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of U.S. Bancorp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in USB. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in U.S. Bancorp by 0.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 135,371,282 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,051,096,000 after purchasing an additional 502,776 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 67,282,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,110,115,000 after purchasing an additional 819,805 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 32.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 63,913,931 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,922,784,000 after buying an additional 15,746,852 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 47,328,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,164,350,000 after buying an additional 1,796,336 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 33,086,597 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,507,616,000 after buying an additional 599,852 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.60% of the company’s stock.

About U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities, and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates through Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.