Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Issues Pessimistic Forecast for WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Stock Price

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD - Free Report) had its target price reduced by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $32.00 to $30.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the bank's stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the company. Stephens reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and set a $29.00 price objective on shares of WaFd in a research report on Monday, April 14th. DA Davidson lowered shares of WaFd from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on WaFd from $37.00 to $31.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of WaFd from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $30.50.

WaFd Price Performance

NASDAQ:WAFD traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $28.13. The stock had a trading volume of 194,807 shares, compared to its average volume of 521,494. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.29 billion, a PE ratio of 12.96 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $28.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.78. WaFd has a 52 week low of $23.75 and a 52 week high of $38.62.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 11th. The bank reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.05. WaFd had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 12.66%. The business had revenue of $179.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $184.17 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that WaFd will post 2.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WaFd Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is an increase from WaFd's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 21st. WaFd's payout ratio is currently 40.75%.

Institutional Trading of WaFd

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in WaFd by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,420,004 shares of the bank's stock worth $303,701,000 after purchasing an additional 166,931 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,696,480 shares of the bank's stock worth $119,175,000 after purchasing an additional 42,096 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in WaFd by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,774,081 shares of the bank's stock worth $57,196,000 after purchasing an additional 234,977 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in WaFd by 10.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,759,135 shares of the bank's stock valued at $61,318,000 after purchasing an additional 159,750 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its stake in shares of WaFd by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,506,368 shares of the bank's stock worth $48,565,000 after acquiring an additional 73,845 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company's stock.

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.