First American Trust FSB Cuts Stock Holdings in Wells Fargo & Company $WFC

First American Trust FSB reduced its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) by 83.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,365 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 141,660 shares during the quarter. First American Trust FSB’s holdings in Wells Fargo & Company were worth $2,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 302,092,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,203,688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,341,222 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,990,551,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 7.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 17,859,680 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,496,998,000 after purchasing an additional 1,223,999 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 18.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 14,155,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,165,868,000 after buying an additional 2,180,693 shares during the period. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC raised its holdings in Wells Fargo & Company by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 8,469,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $678,598,000 after buying an additional 88,358 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.90% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Wells Fargo & Company

Here are the key news stories impacting Wells Fargo & Company this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo hired a $3.1 billion advisory team from J.P. Morgan, a move that can immediately boost investment-banking revenue and client relationships if the team brings mandates and fees. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: The bank named Dennis Devine as head of Business Banking (serving firms up to $25M in sales); leadership hires can improve execution and client retention in a strategic segment for fee and deposit growth. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo research is active: analysts upgraded Alphabet/Google and reiterated/raised views on other tech names (CoreWeave) and raised outlooks on coverage names — this highlights an active research franchise but has limited direct near-term impact on WFC’s fundamentals beyond trading and research revenue. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: The firm’s analyst notes on growth-tech and healthcare (e.g., CoreWeave, Cardinal Health) signal continued investment-banking and research activity, which supports noninterest income but is incremental and timing-dependent. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Negative publicity and potential operational/regulatory risk from a widely reported fraud case: a 90?year?old customer lost $814K and Wells Fargo denies the claim — such incidents raise reputational, compliance and possible litigation concerns. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WFC. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $94.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. CICC Research initiated coverage on Wells Fargo & Company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $96.00 target price on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Wells Fargo & Company from $99.00 to $99.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Freedom Capital cut Wells Fargo & Company from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $102.00 to $100.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.03.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wells Fargo & Company

In other news, EVP Kleber Santos sold 25,000 shares of Wells Fargo & Company stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.72, for a total transaction of $2,193,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 79,876 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,006,722.72. This trade represents a 23.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.08% of the company’s stock.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

WFC opened at $85.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $91.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $267.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.09. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12-month low of $58.42 and a 12-month high of $97.76.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $11.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.63 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 17.27% and a return on equity of 12.90%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.43 EPS. Research analysts predict that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wells Fargo & Company Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 6th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company’s dividend payout ratio is 28.71%.

Wells Fargo & Company Profile

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified, U.S.-based financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo, the firm has evolved from its origins in express delivery and pioneer-era banking into one of the largest full-service banks in the United States. The company provides a broad range of financial products and services to individual, small business, commercial, and institutional clients. Charles W. Scharf serves as chief executive officer.

Wells Fargo operates across several core business segments, including consumer banking and lending, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and wealth and investment management.