Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lowered its position in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 93,475 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,152 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $4,601,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fortis Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Wells Fargo & Company during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 208.0% during the fourth quarter. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 528,104 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 356,620 shares in the last quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WFC. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $54.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Compass Point reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $64.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $63.00 target price (up previously from $57.00) on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. HSBC raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.85.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Performance

NYSE:WFC opened at $59.91 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $56.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.56. Wells Fargo & Company has a 1-year low of $36.40 and a 1-year high of $61.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $212.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $20.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.19 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 15.63% and a return on equity of 12.30%. Wells Fargo & Company’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.06 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.