Wall Street Zen Upgrades Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) to Hold

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued on Friday.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Piper Sandler reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Raymond James Financial cut Wells Fargo & Company from a "strong-buy" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $92.00 to $91.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $80.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Trading Up 1.2%

NYSE WFC traded up $0.93 during trading on Friday, hitting $80.64. 21,202,185 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,458,807. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $77.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $74.21. Wells Fargo & Company has a 12-month low of $50.15 and a 12-month high of $83.95. The firm has a market cap of $262.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.81, a PEG ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $20.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.83 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a net margin of 16.82% and a return on equity of 12.29%. Wells Fargo & Company's revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.33 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Wells Fargo & Company declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 29th that permits the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 17.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Wells Fargo & Company

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WFC. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its stake in Wells Fargo & Company by 2,735,254.3% during the second quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 949,769,723 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $76,095,550,000 after buying an additional 949,735,001 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,365,658,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Wells Fargo & Company by 932.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 15,734,874 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,105,218,000 after purchasing an additional 14,210,193 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 277.4% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,740,934 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $771,092,000 after purchasing an additional 7,894,919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Wells Fargo & Company by 7,887.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,393,083 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $243,589,000 after acquiring an additional 3,350,605 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.90% of the company's stock.

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Co is a diversified and community-based financial services company, which engages in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth and Investment Management.