Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.22 Per Share

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 7th will be given a dividend of 0.22 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, August 21st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 7th. This is a 10.0% increase from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20.

Hilltop has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 8 consecutive years. Hilltop has a dividend payout ratio of 43.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Hilltop to earn $2.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.8%.

Hilltop Price Performance

Shares of HTH stock opened at $37.85 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.22 billion, a PE ratio of 14.34 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $37.98 and a 200-day moving average of $37.29. Hilltop has a one year low of $29.20 and a one year high of $40.41.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.14. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.13% and a return on equity of 7.32%. The business had revenue of $315.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.18 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Hilltop will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on HTH shares. Zacks Research raised shares of Hilltop from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Hilltop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Hilltop from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.50.

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.