WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

Posted by Francis Steltz on Sep 8th, 2026

WaFd, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD – Get Free Report) saw unusually-high trading volume on Tuesday . 418,670 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 31% from the previous session’s volume of 605,402 shares.The stock last traded at $35.6260 and had previously closed at $36.30.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WAFD has been the topic of several research reports. DA Davidson raised their price objective on WaFd from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Zacks Research cut WaFd from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded WaFd from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.00.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on WaFd

WaFd Stock Down 3.8%

The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a PE ratio of 11.03 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.10.

WaFd (NASDAQ:WAFD – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 17th. The bank reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.82 by ($0.01). WaFd had a return on equity of 8.98% and a net margin of 18.47%.The business had revenue of $205.52 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.56 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that WaFd, Inc. will post 3.23 earnings per share for the current year.

WaFd Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 21st were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 21st. WaFd’s payout ratio is 34.07%.

Institutional Trading of WaFd

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WAFD. Corient Private Wealth LP grew its position in shares of WaFd by 26.3% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 68,899 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,644,000 after buying an additional 14,326 shares during the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of WaFd during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $376,000. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in WaFd by 3,626.3% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,409,673 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $130,829,000 after acquiring an additional 3,318,170 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in WaFd by 3.5% during the second quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,514 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $403,000 after acquiring an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in WaFd in the second quarter valued at approximately $230,000. 83.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About WaFd

(Get Free Report)

Washington Federal, Inc, doing business as WaFd Bank, is a publicly traded bank holding company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Through its subsidiary, WaFd Bank, the company provides a range of banking and financial services to individuals, small-to-medium enterprises, and commercial clients. Established in 1917 as Ballard Savings & Loan in Seattle, the institution expanded over decades to serve customers across the Western United States under the Washington Federal name and has operated as a public company since the early 1980s.

WaFd Bank’s core offerings encompass deposit accounts such as checking, savings, money market, and certificates of deposit, alongside consumer and commercial lending products.