Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Reiterates Market Perform Rating for WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated their market perform rating on shares of WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) in a research note released on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have a $40.00 price target on the bank’s stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of WaFd from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Stephens lifted their price objective on WaFd from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.00.

WaFd Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WAFD opened at $34.39 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.11. WaFd has a 52 week low of $23.36 and a 52 week high of $37.49. The firm has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.08 and a beta of 0.83.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.01. WaFd had a return on equity of 9.65% and a net margin of 13.97%. The company had revenue of $389.98 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $190.43 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that WaFd will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

WaFd Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 23rd were issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 23rd. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.54%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WAFD. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in WaFd by 353.2% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 102,577 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,978,000 after acquiring an additional 79,942 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of WaFd by 94.4% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 34,046 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 16,534 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of WaFd during the first quarter valued at approximately $653,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake in shares of WaFd by 24.1% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 139,530 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,988,000 after purchasing an additional 27,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in WaFd by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,902,461 shares of the bank’s stock worth $229,408,000 after buying an additional 125,020 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

WaFd Company Profile

WaFd, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Washington Federal Bank that provides lending, depository, insurance, and other banking services in the United States. The company offers deposit products, including business and personal checking accounts, and term certificates of deposit, as well as money market accounts and passbook savings accounts.