Traders Buy Large Volume of Wells Fargo & Company Call Options (NYSE:WFC)

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 158,210 call options on the company. This is an increase of 123% compared to the typical daily volume of 70,902 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on WFC. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Phillip Securities raised shares of Wells Fargo & Company from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $60.83 to $65.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

Shares of WFC opened at $81.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a market capitalization of $271.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.14, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.18. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.16. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1 year low of $47.45 and a 1 year high of $81.50.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.58 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 7th. Wells Fargo & Company’s payout ratio is currently 29.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wells Fargo & Company

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Wells Fargo & Company during the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Co is a diversified and community-based financial services company, which engages in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth and Investment Management.