Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires 497,065 Shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC - Free Report) by 136.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 860,623 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 497,065 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 1.41% of Wintrust Financial worth $79,823,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WTFC. FMR LLC grew its stake in Wintrust Financial by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,651,381 shares of the bank's stock worth $351,179,000 after buying an additional 480,942 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 102.2% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 596,632 shares of the bank's stock worth $55,338,000 after purchasing an additional 301,528 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 60.4% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 716,253 shares of the bank's stock worth $54,077,000 after purchasing an additional 269,731 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 21.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,172,242 shares of the bank's stock valued at $88,504,000 after buying an additional 207,606 shares during the period. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Wintrust Financial during the 3rd quarter worth about $8,557,000. 93.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wintrust Financial Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Wintrust Financial stock traded up $1.24 on Tuesday, reaching $102.92. 213,442 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 392,669. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $99.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $93.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.55 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. Wintrust Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $61.17 and a fifty-two week high of $105.29.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The bank reported $2.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.42 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $604.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $577.80 million. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 13.09% and a net margin of 17.86%. Wintrust Financial's quarterly revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.17 EPS for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 9th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 8th. Wintrust Financial's payout ratio is 18.61%.

Insider Activity at Wintrust Financial

In related news, insider Edward J. Wehmer sold 9,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total transaction of $943,920.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 177,124 shares of the company's stock, valued at $17,599,040.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on WTFC. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $117.00 to $112.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Raymond James upped their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Tuesday, April 16th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $105.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wintrust Financial has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $112.33.

Wintrust Financial 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.