North Star Investment Management Corp. Decreases Position in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC)

North Star Investment Management Corp. cut its stake in Wintrust Financial Co. (NASDAQ:WTFC) by 6.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 27,745 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,831 shares during the quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp.’s holdings in Wintrust Financial were worth $3,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 825.0% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 296 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Wintrust Financial in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 62.0% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 512 shares of the bank’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 138.8% in the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 578 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 62.6% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 818 shares of the bank’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. 93.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WTFC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Wintrust Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $110.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Friday, July 19th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Wintrust Financial from $131.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wintrust Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $123.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Wintrust Financial news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total value of $1,789,016.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 197,591 shares in the company, valued at $22,817,808.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Wintrust Financial news, COO David A. Dykstra sold 15,492 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.48, for a total value of $1,789,016.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 197,591 shares in the company, valued at $22,817,808.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 1,607 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.46, for a total transaction of $182,330.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,874 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,687,604.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,198 shares of company stock worth $2,445,314 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.47% of the company’s stock.

Wintrust Financial Stock Up 1.6 %

Wintrust Financial stock opened at $115.15 on Wednesday. Wintrust Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $76.67 and a fifty-two week high of $118.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $109.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $103.18. The company has a market capitalization of $7.66 billion, a PE ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 1.15.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $2.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.50 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $615.73 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $623.45 million. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 16.52%. The business’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.53 EPS. Research analysts expect that Wintrust Financial Co. will post 10.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Wintrust Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.85%.

About Wintrust Financial

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.