WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Earns “Equal Weight” Rating from Stephens

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Stephens in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $38.00 target price on the bank’s stock. Stephens’ price objective points to a potential upside of 25.62% from the stock’s current price.

WAFD has been the subject of several other research reports. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of WaFd from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of WaFd in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of WaFd from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.50.

WaFd Trading Down 2.5 %

NASDAQ:WAFD opened at $30.25 on Friday. WaFd has a 52 week low of $25.78 and a 52 week high of $38.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $34.38 and its 200-day moving average is $34.37. The firm has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.20 and a beta of 0.87.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $389.98 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $190.43 million. WaFd had a return on equity of 9.44% and a net margin of 13.97%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. Equities analysts expect that WaFd will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other WaFd news, EVP Ryan Mauer sold 12,132 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.33, for a total transaction of $404,359.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 100,376 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,345,532.08. This trade represents a 10.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of WaFd

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WAFD. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in WaFd in the 3rd quarter worth about $18,583,000. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its holdings in shares of WaFd by 21.5% in the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,432,523 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,923,000 after acquiring an additional 253,044 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of WaFd by 5.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,969,790 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $138,347,000 after acquiring an additional 195,845 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in WaFd by 10.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,135 shares of the bank’s stock worth $61,318,000 after acquiring an additional 159,750 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in WaFd by 28.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 428,504 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,933,000 after purchasing an additional 95,251 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

About WaFd

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts.