Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $39.80.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on HTLF shares. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Heartland Financial USA from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. TheStreet downgraded Heartland Financial USA from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Heartland Financial USA in a report on Tuesday, January 30th.

Heartland Financial USA Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HTLF opened at $41.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.34 and a beta of 1.06. Heartland Financial USA has a 1 year low of $26.10 and a 1 year high of $42.81. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.76.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The bank reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.40. Heartland Financial USA had a net margin of 8.57% and a return on equity of 11.56%. The company had revenue of $144.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $178.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Financial USA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be given a $0.30 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th. Heartland Financial USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.01%.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Financial USA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Heartland Financial USA during the 3rd quarter valued at about $232,000. Denali Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 30.0% during the third quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 144,041 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,239,000 after acquiring an additional 33,200 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 1.8% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,785 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $612,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Heartland Financial USA by 5.4% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 11,560 shares of the bank’s stock worth $340,000 after purchasing an additional 593 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Heartland Financial USA by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 292,015 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,594,000 after purchasing an additional 4,217 shares during the period. 71.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Heartland Financial USA Company Profile

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.