State Street Corp Buys 35,030 Shares of WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC)

State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of WesBanco, Inc. (NASDAQ:WSBC) by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,934,453 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 35,030 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp’s holdings in WesBanco were worth $58,313,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in WSBC. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in WesBanco by 64.0% during the 2nd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $340,000 after purchasing an additional 4,760 shares during the last quarter. AMG National Trust Bank increased its position in WesBanco by 31.7% during the 2nd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 14,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $406,000 after buying an additional 3,500 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. lifted its holdings in shares of WesBanco by 3.9% during the second quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 17,380 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $485,000 after buying an additional 647 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of WesBanco by 4.5% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 490,335 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,685,000 after acquiring an additional 21,297 shares during the period. Finally, Bailard Inc. acquired a new position in shares of WesBanco in the second quarter valued at about $687,000. Institutional investors own 61.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on WSBC. Raymond James raised shares of WesBanco from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $44.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of WesBanco in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Stephens lifted their price objective on WesBanco from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.83.

Insider Transactions at WesBanco

In other news, EVP Michael L. Perkins sold 1,125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.87, for a total transaction of $39,228.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 46,817 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,632,508.79. This represents a 2.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 3.44% of the company’s stock.

WesBanco Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:WSBC opened at $32.94 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93. WesBanco, Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.56 and a 1 year high of $37.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.76 and a beta of 0.84.

WesBanco (NASDAQ:WSBC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.03. WesBanco had a return on equity of 5.75% and a net margin of 14.79%. The company had revenue of $243.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.40 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.59 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that WesBanco, Inc. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

WesBanco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.37 per share. This is an increase from WesBanco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.49%. WesBanco’s payout ratio is presently 70.81%.

About WesBanco

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.