BlackRock Inc. Makes New Investment in Hilltop Holdings Inc. $HTH

BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 6,605,966 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $256,179,000. BlackRock Inc. owned 0.12% of Hilltop as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HTH. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Hilltop during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hilltop by 584.7% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 918 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in Hilltop by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in Hilltop during the 3rd quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in Hilltop by 276.4% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006 shares during the last quarter. 57.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on HTH. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Hilltop in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Hilltop from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $42.00 target price on shares of Hilltop in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen lowered Hilltop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Hilltop from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Rhodes R. Bobbitt sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was 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 $994,870.80. This represents a 16.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 62,555 shares of company stock valued at $2,467,714 in the last three months. Insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Hilltop Stock Performance

HTH stock opened at $38.65 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.79. Hilltop Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $30.78 and a 52 week high of $40.41. The company has a market capitalization of $2.21 billion, a PE ratio of 14.31 and a beta of 0.89.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.14. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The business had revenue of $315.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $306.18 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.57 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Hilltop Holdings Inc. will post 2.59 EPS for the current year.

Hilltop Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th were paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. This is an increase from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 7th. Hilltop’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.59%.

About Hilltop

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.