WaFd's (WAFD) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at DA Davidson

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by analysts at DA Davidson in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $35.00 target price on the bank's stock. DA Davidson's price objective points to a potential upside of 28.91% from the company's current price.

WAFD has been the subject of a number of other reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of WaFd from $37.00 to $35.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of WaFd from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Stephens reiterated an "equal weight" rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of WaFd in a research note on Wednesday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $33.50.

WaFd Stock Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ WAFD traded up $0.43 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $27.15. The stock had a trading volume of 326,671 shares, compared to its average volume of 358,816. WaFd has a 1 year low of $23.36 and a 1 year high of $34.07. The stock has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a PE ratio of 7.96 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $27.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 16th. The bank reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.08. WaFd had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 11.19%. The company had revenue of $166.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that WaFd will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On WaFd

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of WAFD. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of WaFd in the 3rd quarter worth $35,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in WaFd in the 1st quarter worth $82,000. EMC Capital Management boosted its holdings in WaFd by 90.2% in the 3rd quarter. EMC Capital Management now owns 4,184 shares of the bank's stock worth $107,000 after buying an additional 1,984 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in WaFd by 979.4% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 4,091 shares of the bank's stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 3,712 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in WaFd by 21.9% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,618 shares of the bank's stock worth $154,000 after buying an additional 831 shares during the period. 83.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

WaFd Company Profile

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts.