Sen. Mitch McConnell Purchases Shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) recently bought shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC). In a filing disclosed on March 12th, the Senator disclosed that they had bought between $1,001 and $15,000 in Wells Fargo & Company stock on March 3rd.

Wells Fargo & Company Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of WFC stock opened at $68.98 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $75.94 and a 200-day moving average of $68.74. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1-year low of $50.15 and a 1-year high of $81.50. The stock has a market cap of $226.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.82, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.09. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 12.38%. The firm had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.58 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.86 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Saturday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.74%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wells Fargo & Company

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,365,658,000. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 932.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,734,874 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,105,218,000 after buying an additional 14,210,193 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 730.4% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 5,954,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $336,375,000 after buying an additional 5,237,500 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 34,339,295 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,411,992,000 after buying an additional 3,307,855 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth $198,801,000. 75.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on WFC. UBS Group increased their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $69.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Compass Point lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.39.

About Senator McConnell

Mitch McConnell (Republican Party) is a member of the U.S. Senate from Kentucky. He assumed office on January 3, 1985. His current term ends on January 3, 2027. McConnell (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate to represent Kentucky. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020. McConnell is the Senate minority leader in the 118th Congress. He became the minority leader when the Democratic Party gained a majority in the Senate in January 2021.McConnell previously served as Senate majority leader from 2015 to 2021. He was unanimously elected as majority leader by Republicans following the 2014 elections. Before that, he served as Senate minority leader from 2007 to 2015. As Senate majority leader, McConnell set records for the number of judicial nominees confirmed during the first two years of a presidency. As of July 2019, the Senate had confirmed two Supreme Court justices, 41 circuit court appeals judges, and 80 district court judges during President Donald Trump’s presidency. “To put that in context, that’s about one in five of the Courts of Appeals judges nationwide have now been appointed by this president and confirmed by this Senate in two and a half years. And I want you to know that my view is, there will be no vacancies left behind. None,” McConnell said in June 2019. McConnell previously worked as the Deputy U.S. Attorney for Legislative Affairs from 1974 to 1975 and as a judge-executive of Jefferson County, KY, from 1979 to 1985.

About Wells Fargo & Company

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.