Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) Short Interest Down 7.8% in March

Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) saw a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 726,900 shares, a drop of 7.8% from the March 15th total of 788,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 161,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.5 days. Currently, 1.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Horizon Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.00.

Horizon Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HBNC traded up $0.10 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $11.50. The company had a trading volume of 44,439 shares, compared to its average volume of 158,434. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $507.27 million, a PE ratio of 17.81 and a beta of 1.02. Horizon Bancorp has a twelve month low of $7.69 and a twelve month high of $14.71. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $12.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.04.

Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. Horizon Bancorp had a net margin of 8.63% and a return on equity of 9.42%. The business had revenue of $21.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $51.50 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Horizon Bancorp will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Horizon Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.57%. Horizon Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HBNC. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co bought a new position in shares of Horizon Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $6,167,000. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 2.2% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 96,950 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares in the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank lifted its position in Horizon Bancorp by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 69,533 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $743,000 after acquiring an additional 1,860 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 1.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,183,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $23,325,000 after buying an additional 34,861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Horizon Bancorp by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 634,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,780,000 after buying an additional 44,810 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.51% of the company’s stock.

Horizon Bancorp Company Profile

Horizon Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Horizon Bank that engages in the provision of commercial and retail banking services. The company offers checking, saving, money market, certificate of deposits, individual retirement accounts, and time deposits, as well as non-interest- and interest-bearing demand deposits.