Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Receives $34.00 Average Target Price from Analysts

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $34.00.

HTH has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Hilltop in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Stephens upped their target price on Hilltop from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Hilltop from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th.

Hilltop Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of HTH opened at $34.83 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.14 billion, a PE ratio of 13.88 and a beta of 0.91. Hilltop has a 12 month low of $26.74 and a 12 month high of $36.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $34.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.13.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $330.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $309.68 million. Hilltop had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 9.86%.During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.46 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Hilltop will post 1.51 EPS for the current year.

Hilltop Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 21st. Investors of record on Friday, November 7th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 7th. Hilltop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.69%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.00, for a total transaction of $77,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 8,692 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $304,220. This represents a 20.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 29.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Hilltop in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Hilltop by 584.7% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 918 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Hilltop by 141.8% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 821 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in shares of Hilltop in the third quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Hilltop by 42.7% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings, Inc (NYSE: HTH) is a Dallas, Texas–based financial holding company offering commercial banking, mortgage lending and capital markets services through its three primary subsidiaries: PlainsCapital Corporation, PrimeLending and HilltopSecurities. PlainsCapital provides deposit, lending and treasury management solutions to small and mid-sized businesses, professionals and individuals. PrimeLending specializes in home purchase and refinance loans, serving retail, wholesale and correspondent channels.