Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $157.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial raised Wintrust Financial to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Wintrust Financial from $125.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $152.00 price target on shares of Wintrust Financial in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective (up previously from $135.00) on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $133.69.

Wintrust Financial Price Performance

Shares of Wintrust Financial stock opened at $130.81 on Thursday. Wintrust Financial has a twelve month low of $89.68 and a twelve month high of $142.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market cap of $8.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.69 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $130.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.68.

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The bank reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.11. Wintrust Financial had a return on equity of 12.60% and a net margin of 17.52%. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.87 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Wintrust Financial will post 10.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Wintrust Financial

In other Wintrust Financial news, CFO David L. Stoehr sold 2,363 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.32, for a total value of $310,309.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 19,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,607,752.56. This trade represents a 10.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO David A. Dykstra sold 4,213 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $131.31, for a total transaction of $553,209.03. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 206,294 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,088,465.14. This trade represents a 2.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 10,178 shares of company stock valued at $1,336,315. 1.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Wintrust Financial

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in Wintrust Financial by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,153,999 shares of the bank’s stock worth $559,364,000 after acquiring an additional 637,072 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Wintrust Financial by 36.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 802,841 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $87,132,000 after buying an additional 213,559 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Wintrust Financial by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,308,254 shares of the bank’s stock worth $141,981,000 after buying an additional 133,311 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Wintrust Financial by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,627,561 shares of the bank’s stock worth $285,169,000 after buying an additional 126,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lightrock Netherlands B.V. acquired a new stake in shares of Wintrust Financial in the fourth quarter valued at about $14,970,000. 93.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wintrust Financial Company Profile

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.