Wealth Alliance Purchases 266 Shares of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB)

Wealth Alliance lifted its position in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 49,229 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the quarter. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in U.S. Bancorp were worth $2,131,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Scotia Capital Inc. increased its stake in U.S. Bancorp by 2.9% in the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 35,012 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,158,000 after acquiring an additional 990 shares during the last quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 33.4% during the fourth quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. now owns 62,539 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,707,000 after buying an additional 15,665 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 19.4% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 8,677,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $286,874,000 after buying an additional 1,410,324 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of U.S. Bancorp by 104.3% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 105,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,548,000 after buying an additional 53,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of U.S. Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at about $4,073,000. Institutional investors own 77.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on U.S. Bancorp from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on U.S. Bancorp from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Compass Point upgraded shares of U.S. Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $49.00 in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of U.S. Bancorp from $37.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.41.

Insider Activity at U.S. Bancorp

In related news, EVP James L. Chosy sold 21,582 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.47, for a total transaction of $895,005.54. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 164,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,837,573.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other U.S. Bancorp news, EVP James L. Chosy sold 21,582 shares of U.S. Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.47, for a total value of $895,005.54. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 164,880 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,837,573.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Timothy A. Welsh sold 12,100 shares of U.S. Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.33, for a total transaction of $487,993.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 106,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,313,616.14. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,265 shares of company stock valued at $2,535,903 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.23% of the company’s stock.

U.S. Bancorp Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE USB traded down $0.36 on Tuesday, reaching $41.08. 6,176,702 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,658,102. U.S. Bancorp has a 12 month low of $27.27 and a 12 month high of $45.85. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.67. The company has a market cap of $64.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 17th. The financial services provider reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.71 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $6.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. U.S. Bancorp had a net margin of 13.36% and a return on equity of 14.89%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that U.S. Bancorp will post 3.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

U.S. Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 29th were given a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. U.S. Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.76%.

U.S. Bancorp Company Profile

U.S. Bancorp, a financial services holding company, provides various financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional organizations, governmental entities, and other financial institutions in the United States. It operates through Wealth, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking; Consumer and Business Banking; Payment Services; and Treasury and Corporate Support segments.