Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC – Get Rating) saw a significant decrease in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 817,600 shares, a decrease of 16.9% from the March 31st total of 983,300 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 456,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.8 days.
In other Wintrust Financial news, Director H Patrick Hackett, Jr. purchased 5,000 shares of Wintrust Financial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 26th. The shares were bought at an average price of $91.23 per share, with a total value of $456,150.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 40,037 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,652,575.51. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of Wintrust Financial by 23.0% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 7,070 shares of the bank’s stock worth $642,000 after acquiring an additional 1,324 shares in the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH acquired a new stake in Wintrust Financial during the 4th quarter valued at $1,001,000. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 372,801 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,858,000 after purchasing an additional 24,023 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,649,342 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $212,928,000 after purchasing an additional 69,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 14,700 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,335,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. 89.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $95.00 to $104.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 21st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $110.00 to $122.00 in a research note on Friday, January 21st. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Thursday, March 31st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $110.00 to $115.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 20th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Wintrust Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $107.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $114.25.
Shares of WTFC stock opened at $89.16 on Wednesday. Wintrust Financial has a one year low of $65.66 and a one year high of $105.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $92.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $93.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.29.
Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 19th. The bank reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.52. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 23.67% and a return on equity of 10.95%. The company had revenue of $462.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $427.66 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.54 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Wintrust Financial will post 7.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 12th will be given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 11th. Wintrust Financial’s payout ratio is currently 19.10%.
Wintrust Financial Company Profile
Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.