GWN Securities Inc. Buys Shares of 8,420 WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC)

GWN Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 8,420 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $288,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of WesBanco during the third quarter worth about $56,000. Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of WesBanco by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 2,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 603 shares in the last quarter. Roble Belko & Company Inc purchased a new position in shares of WesBanco during the fourth quarter worth about $78,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of WesBanco by 668.5% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,467 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 2,146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hilltop National Bank grew its holdings in shares of WesBanco by 19.6% during the fourth quarter. Hilltop National Bank now owns 2,518 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $82,000 after purchasing an additional 413 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.41% of the company’s stock.

WesBanco Stock Performance

Shares of WSBC stock opened at $31.98 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 0.93. WesBanco, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.56 and a fifty-two week high of $37.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $33.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.97. The company has a market capitalization of $2.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28 and a beta of 0.84.

WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.17. WesBanco had a return on equity of 6.30% and a net margin of 15.89%. Analysts expect that WesBanco, Inc. will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current year.

WesBanco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.63%. WesBanco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.07%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WSBC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on WesBanco from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised WesBanco from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Raymond James raised WesBanco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com raised WesBanco from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $39.00 target price on shares of WesBanco in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, WesBanco presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.83.

WesBanco Profile

WesBanco, Inc operates as the bank holding company for WesBanco Bank, Inc that provides retail banking, corporate banking, personal and corporate trust, brokerage, mortgage banking, and insurance services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company operates through two segments, Community Banking, and Trust and Investment Services.