Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) Short Interest Down 7.4% in March

Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 617,800 shares, a decrease of 7.4% from the March 15th total of 666,900 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 255,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heartland Financial USA

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HTLF. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in Heartland Financial USA by 66.3% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 875 shares of the bank’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Heartland Financial USA in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 219.3% in the 1st quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 993 shares of the bank’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 682 shares during the period. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 521.5% during the first quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 1,013 shares of the bank’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 850 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.55% of the company’s stock.

Heartland Financial USA Price Performance

HTLF stock traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $33.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 115,624 shares, compared to its average volume of 255,894. The stock has a market cap of $1.43 billion, a PE ratio of 19.70 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company’s 50 day moving average is $33.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.38. Heartland Financial USA has a fifty-two week low of $26.10 and a fifty-two week high of $39.39.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The bank reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $144.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $178.60 million. Heartland Financial USA had a return on equity of 11.56% and a net margin of 8.57%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.45 EPS for the current year.

Heartland Financial USA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.59%. Heartland Financial USA’s payout ratio is currently 71.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HTLF has been the subject of several research reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Heartland Financial USA from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Heartland Financial USA from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Heartland Financial USA in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $41.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.80.

About Heartland Financial USA

Heartland Financial USA, Inc, a bank holding company, provides commercial, small business, and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, demand deposit accounts, NOW accounts, savings, money market, and individual retirement; certificates of deposit; and other time deposits.