Should You Consider Adding Washington Federal (WAFD) to Your Portfolio?
Artisan Partners, an investment management company, released its “Artisan Value Income Fund” fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the fourth quarter, its Investor Class fund APFWX returned 10.25%, Advisor Class fund APDWX posted a return of 10.23%, and Institutional Class fund APHWX returned 10.24%, compared to a return of 7.56% for the S&P 500 Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.
Artisan Value Income Fund highlighted stocks like Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) in the fourth quarter 2022 investor letter. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) is a bank holding company. On April 5, 2023, Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) stock closed at $29.78 per share. One-month return of Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) was -13.41%, and its shares lost 5.91% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) has a market capitalization of $1.969 billion.
Artisan Value Income Fund made the following comment about Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
"In Q4, we purchased Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD), a bank holding company based in Seattle that operates in the western US. WaFd has transitioned from a thrift to a diversified commercial bank by investing in technology and diversifying into new customer groups and geographies. Despite its evolution, its overall ethos has remained the same: “strong balance sheet, strong customer relationships and strong credit.” Our opportunity to invest came when the stock price reacted negatively to WaFd’s announced acquisition of Luther Burbank, a California-based thrift that resembles WaFd from 15 years ago, in an all-stock deal worth roughly $654 million. The purchase price was far below tangible book value and is immediately accretive to book value, capital ratios and to 2024 EPS. The deal facilitates WaFd expansion into California, where it can roll out the same playbook it used to transform itself into a commercial bank. Importantly, we believe in WaFd’s management team, which has shown itself to be disciplined and shareholder oriented. Over the past five years, WaFd has retired approximately 33% of its shares while paying a dividend that currently yields 2.8%."
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Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 16 hedge fund portfolios held Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 17 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Washington Federal, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAFD) in another article and shared the list of stocks gaining value on October 14, 2022. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
