Originally published on Best Stocks Category: best stocks to buy now Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ: WTFC) was raised by the stock experts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” recommendation on Friday.WTFC has just recently obtained feedback from several different brokerages. Piper Sandler upgraded Wintrust Financial from “underweight” to “equal weight” and upped their price objective on the stock from $107.00 to $120.00 in a research note published on October 20. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its price objective for Wintrust Financial from $109.00 to $115.00 and upgraded the company’s rating from “underperform” to “outperform” in a report released on October 20. Raymond James increased their price target for Wintrust Financial from $111.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report published on Thursday, October 20. The shares of Wintrust Financial were given a “buy” rating and a price target of $100.00 in a research report distributed by Truist Financial on October 20. The “buy” rating that DA Davidson had previously assigned to shares of Wintrust Financial was reinstated on July 27. The stock has been awarded nine buy ratings, one strong buy recommendation, and one hold rating by analysts at various financial institutions. According to information on Bloomberg.com, the general opinion about Wintrust Financial is to “buy” the stock, and analysts have set an average price objective of $110.38.At midday on Friday, WTFC shares were trading at $91.15, which was $3.88 less than their previous closing price. The trading volume was 742,977 shares, higher than the normal volume of 445,077. The one-year high for Wintrust Financial is $105.56, and the one-year low as $76.13 (currently). The current ratio, the quick ratio, and the debt-to-equity ratio are each equal to 0.82, and they are equal to 1.00. The company has a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.40, a PEG ratio of 0.66, and a beta value of 1.21. The market capitalization of the company is $5.54 billion. The company’s moving average over the past 50 days is $88.08, and its moving average over the past 200 days is $85.87.On October 19, the most recent quarterly earnings report for Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ: WTFC) was made public. The bank reported a quarterly profit of $2.21 per share, which was $0.14 more than the consensus analyst’s prediction of $2.07 per share. The sales for the company for the quarter came in at $502.93 million, which is significantly more than the analysts’ expectation of $497.95 million. The return on equity for Wintrust Financial was 11.10%, while the net margin for the company was 23.23%. The company’s quarterly revenue growth was 18.6% higher when measured against the prior year’s numbers for the same time. Compared to the previous year’s results for the same quarter, the company’s revenue per share came in at $1.77. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Wintrust Financial will generate earnings of $8.39 per share for the current financial year.In other news, the Chief Financial Officer of the business, David L. Stoehr, sold 2,215 company stock on November 4. The entire worth of the stock was determined to be $204,776.75, with each share fetching an average price of $92.45. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer has gained ownership of 11,266 company shares, which are currently valued at $1,041,541.70. By clicking on this link, you will be taken to a document filed with the SEC that will describe the sale. As a result, 1.41 percent of the company’s shares are owned by company insiders.Recently, several hedge funds and institutional investors have modified their stock holdings by making adjustments to the portfolios that they maintain. For example, the investment portfolio of North Reef Capital Management LP had a 61.0% growth in its holdings of Wintrust Financial during the third quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP is currently the owner of 303,804 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 115,104 shares over the period in question. The current market value of these shares is $24,775,000. In addition, Relative Value Partners Group LLC made a fresh investment totaling 235,000 dollars in Wintrust Financial during the third quarter of 2018. During the third quarter, Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its total ownership of Wintrust Financial to a level that is 44.6% higher than before. After purchasing an additional 311 shares during the most recent quarter, Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,008 shares of the bank with a total value of $82,000. These shares were acquired during the most recent quarter. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Wintrust Financial by 11.0% during the third quarter of the fiscal year. After purchasing 46,500 additional shares during the most recent quarter, Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. now holds 467,920 shares of the bank’s stock, with a market value of $38,159,000. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP spent approximately $3.755,000 more during the third quarter to add to its holdings of Wintrust Financial stock. This is the last and most important point. At this time, hedge funds and other institutional investors hold 92.21% of the company’s stock.The Wintrust Financial Corporation is a holding company that operates in the financial sector. Community banking, specialty finance, and wealth management are the three facets of its operations that make up the company. The community banking segment is responsible for offering a wide variety of financial products and services, including the automated teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, non-interest-bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, savings and domestic time deposits, home equity, consumer, and real estate loans, safe deposit boxes, and more.