BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Washington Federal Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 4.74% to 7.27 million shares with purchase of 0.33 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 11.12% valued currently at $255.11 million. In addition, The Vanguard Group, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.11 million to 7.07 million shares. And Dimensional Fund Advisors LP has lifted its position by 2.03% or 0.11 million shares – to 5.35 million shares.
With over 2.08 million Washington Federal Inc. (WAFD) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $32.24 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $67.16 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 0.75% and its price on 03/13/23 gained nearly 1.74%. Currently, there are 65.34M common shares owned by the public and among those 64.31M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 3 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for WAFD have a consensus price objective of $43.33. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $48.00 and a low of $37.00. The average price target is 25.59% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 12.86% over that period. But an upside of 32.83% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $45.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 34 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 14 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 160,231 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 20 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 174,335 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Washington Federal Inc. are iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and DFA US Small Cap Value Portfolio. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF owns 2.04 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $71.51 million. The company bought an additional 4620.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.12% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 2792.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 2.0 million shares valued at over $70.04 million and representing 3.05% of the shares outstanding. DFA US Small Cap Value Portfolio now owns shares totaling to 2.74% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Washington Federal Inc. (NASDAQ: WAFD) opened at $30.43, down -$1.26 from a prior closing price of $31.69. However, the script later moved the day high at 35.02, up 1.74%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -8.59% and -4.62% over the past three months. WAFD shares are trading -3.90% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -5.62% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $29.46 and touched a high of $39.17 over the same period. WAFD has an average intraday trading volume of 477.06K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -8.19%, -7.26%, and -4.16% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Washington Federal Inc. (NASDAQ: WAFD) shares accounts for 85.70% of the company’s 65.34M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 4.04%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 53.25% and 29.98% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $2.11B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.87. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 8.40, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $3.84. The company has a PEG of 1.20 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.00. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 7.93% over the week and 3.39% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Washington Federal Inc. (WAFD) will achieve an EPS of $1.11 for the current quarter, $0.98 for the next quarter and $4.6 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.07 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.17. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.7 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 41.70%, and 5.89% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 7.00% over the next five years, compared to 11.80% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 3 brokerage firm advisors rate Washington Federal Inc. (WAFD) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.00. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 1 of the 3 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the WAFD, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. DA Davidson stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on March 15, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $43. Stephens coverage for the Washington Federal Inc. (WAFD) stock in a research note released on February 19, 2020 offered a Equal-Weight rating with a price target of $36. RBC Capital Mkts was of a view on April 18, 2016 that the stock is Sector Perform, while RBC Capital Mkts gave the stock Sector Perform rating on January 21, 2016, issuing a price target of $26- $23. Macquarie on their part issued Underperform rating on June 25, 2015.
