Natixis Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD)

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in WaFd, Inc (NASDAQ:WAFD) by 9.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,187 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,548 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in WaFd were worth $634,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in WaFd by 17,472.3% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 8,259 shares of the bank’s stock worth $240,000 after acquiring an additional 8,212 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of WaFd by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,902,461 shares of the bank’s stock worth $229,408,000 after purchasing an additional 125,020 shares in the last quarter. American International Group Inc. increased its position in shares of WaFd by 4.4% during the 1st quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 36,637 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,064,000 after purchasing an additional 1,532 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in shares of WaFd by 14.3% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 71,793 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,084,000 after buying an additional 9,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in WaFd by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 40,018 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,162,000 after buying an additional 3,335 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on WAFD. StockNews.com upgraded WaFd from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on WaFd from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of WaFd from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of WaFd in a report on Monday, October 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.00.

Insider Activity at WaFd

In other WaFd news, EVP Ryan Mauer sold 12,132 shares of WaFd stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.33, for a total transaction of $404,359.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 100,376 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,345,532.08. The trade was a 10.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.25% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

WaFd Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of WaFd stock opened at $37.11 on Thursday. WaFd, Inc has a 1-year low of $25.78 and a 1-year high of $38.62. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.02 billion, a PE ratio of 14.99 and a beta of 0.83.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.01. WaFd had a net margin of 13.97% and a return on equity of 9.44%. The firm had revenue of $389.98 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $190.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that WaFd, Inc will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current year.

WaFd Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. WaFd’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.94%.

About WaFd

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.