Hilltop Holdings Inc. (HTH) – What Are Investment Firms Saying About This Stock?

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $40.00.

Several research firms have recently commented on HTH. Zacks Research lowered Hilltop from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $42.00 price objective on shares of Hilltop in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Hilltop from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Hilltop from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th.

Insider Transactions at Hilltop

In other news, Director Rhodes Bobbitt sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.80, for a total transaction of $194,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 25,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $994,870.80. This represents a 16.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 52,555 shares of company stock worth $2,087,714 in the last 90 days. 5.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Hilltop during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $256,179,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in Hilltop by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,546,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $98,769,000 after buying an additional 24,912 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Hilltop by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 413,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,049,000 after buying an additional 12,100 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Hilltop in the second quarter worth $13,091,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hilltop by 39.8% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 286,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,247,000 after acquiring an additional 81,448 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

Hilltop Stock Performance

NYSE:HTH opened at $36.74 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.61 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.02. Hilltop has a fifty-two week low of $30.78 and a fifty-two week high of $40.41.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $315.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.18 million. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 7.40%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.57 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Hilltop will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hilltop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. This is a boost from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 7th. Hilltop’s payout ratio is currently 32.59%.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings Inc is a Dallas, Texas-based financial services holding company that provides banking, mortgage lending and securities services through its subsidiaries. The company primarily serves individuals, businesses, government entities and institutional clients, with operations focused largely on the United States and particularly the Texas market.

PlainsCapital Bank, Hilltop’s banking subsidiary, offers commercial and consumer banking products, including loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other financial services.