JPMorgan Chase & Co. Raises Stock Position in WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) by 17.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 232,568 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,008 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 0.35% of WesBanco worth $6,926,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP grew its holdings in WesBanco by 215.3% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 913 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of WesBanco in the 3rd quarter worth about $56,000. CWM LLC grew its stake in WesBanco by 175.2% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,072 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in WesBanco during the 3rd quarter valued at about $80,000. Finally, Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in WesBanco during the third quarter worth about $147,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.41% of the company’s stock.

WesBanco Stock Performance

NASDAQ:WSBC opened at $32.15 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market cap of $2.15 billion, a PE ratio of 15.38 and a beta of 0.85. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.88. WesBanco, Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.56 and a 1-year high of $37.36.

WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.03. WesBanco had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.79%. The company had revenue of $243.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $152.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.59 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that WesBanco, Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

WesBanco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.37 dividend. This is a positive change from WesBanco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. WesBanco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.81%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Raymond James raised shares of WesBanco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $35.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Stephens increased their target price on WesBanco from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.83.

WesBanco Profile

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.