Short Interest in Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) Drops By 17.9%

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) saw a significant decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 32,500,000 shares, a decrease of 17.9% from the March 31st total of 39,580,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 19,080,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WFC. Core Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Arlington Trust Co LLC acquired a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners purchased a new stake in Wells Fargo & Company during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Fortis Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, Transcendent Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Wells Fargo & Company in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 75.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WFC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. HSBC upped their target price on Wells Fargo & Company from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Compass Point reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 target price on shares of Wells Fargo & Company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $58.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Wells Fargo & Company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.85.

Wells Fargo & Company Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WFC traded down $0.02 during trading on Friday, hitting $59.91. The company had a trading volume of 18,785,900 shares, compared to its average volume of 18,078,044. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $56.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.63. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. Wells Fargo & Company has a fifty-two week low of $36.40 and a fifty-two week high of $61.76.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.10 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $20.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.19 billion. Wells Fargo & Company had a return on equity of 12.30% and a net margin of 15.63%. Wells Fargo & Company’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Wells Fargo & Company will post 5.06 earnings per share for the current year.

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company, a financial services company, provides diversified banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Consumer Banking and Lending; Commercial Banking; Corporate and Investment Banking; and Wealth and Investment Management.