Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Plans $0.40 Quarterly Dividend

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the financial services provider on Saturday, March 1st. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.05%.

Wells Fargo & Company has raised its dividend by an average of 35.7% per year over the last three years. Wells Fargo & Company has a dividend payout ratio of 23.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Wells Fargo & Company to earn $6.79 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.6%.

Wells Fargo & Company Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of WFC traded up $0.05 on Tuesday, hitting $77.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,556,657 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,599,857. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $73.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $64.23. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $47.45 and a fifty-two week high of $78.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $259.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.18.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.09. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.38% and a net margin of 15.73%. The firm had revenue of $20.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.86 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WFC. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $71.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point lifted their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $60.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Wells Fargo & Company from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $81.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $67.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $73.39.

Wells Fargo & Company Company Profile

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.