Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) Volatility Spurs A Quest For Clarity

JPMorgan Investment Management, I recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 11.61% to 81.64 million shares with purchase of 8.49 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 2.25% valued currently at $4.02 billion. In addition, Capital Research & Management Co raised its holdings by 7.11 million to 68.95 million shares. And Norges Bank Investment Management has lifted its position by 4.69% or 2.22 million shares – to 49.64 million shares.

With over 30.45 million Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $47.40 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $1.44 billion. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 8.82% and its price on 01/12/24 lost nearly -3.34%. Currently, there are 3.63B common shares owned by the public and among those 3.63B shares have been available to trade.

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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 29 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WFC have a consensus price objective of $55.55. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $66.00 and a low of $46.35. The average price target is 14.93% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -2.27% over that period. But an upside of 28.18% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $55.00.

Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 129 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 67 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 1,723,975 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 62 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 965,511 shares.

The top 3 mutual fund holders in Wells Fargo & Co. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Dodge & Cox Stock Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 114.97 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $5.66 billion. The company bought an additional 0.16 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.17% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.41 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 88.36 million shares valued at over $4.35 billion and representing 2.43% of the shares outstanding. Dodge & Cox Stock Fund sold -0.6 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 81.39 million shares at a value of $4.01 billion. Dodge & Cox Stock Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.24% of the shares outstanding.

Shares of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) opened at $47.95, down -$1.09 from a prior closing price of $49.04. However, the script later moved the day high at 48.78, down -3.34%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -5.05% and 19.28% over the past three months. WFC shares are trading -3.70% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 10.90% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $35.25 and touched a high of $50.77 over the same period. WFC has an average intraday trading volume of 16.92 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -4.10%, 4.18%, and 11.81% respectively.

Institutional ownership of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) shares accounts for 75.56% of the company’s 3.63B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 30.93%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 44.93% and 13.87% respectively.

It has a market capitalization of $172.14B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.18. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 9.82, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $4.83. The company has a PEG of 1.47 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.60. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.78% over the week and 1.89% over the month.

Analysts forecast that Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) will achieve an EPS of $1.17 for the current quarter, $1.09 for the next quarter and $4.88 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.41. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.61 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 0.32%, and 11.58% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 6.67% over the next five years, compared to 2.47% over the past 5-year period.

If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 30 brokerage firm advisors rate Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.03. Specifically, 13 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 14 of the 30 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”

Looking at the support for the WFC, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Deutsche Bank stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on January 09, 2024, with the firm’s price target at $51.

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