HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Acquires 1,138 Shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 5.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,006 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 1,138 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Huntington Bancshares were worth $405,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HBAN. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 17,533.3% during the 4th quarter. Creative Capital Management Investments LLC now owns 1,587 shares of the bank’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578 shares in the last quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd raised its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 1,830 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,023 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Huntington Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Asset Dedication LLC increased its holdings in Huntington Bancshares by 70.0% in the 4th quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 3,061 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 1,260 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 27.2% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,279 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 702 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Baird R W upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $20.00 target price (up previously from $18.50) on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.18.

Insider Activity

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 69,088 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.67, for a total transaction of $1,013,520.96. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 453,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,647,402.43. This represents a 13.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Brendan A. Lawlor sold 3,521 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.25, for a total value of $53,695.25. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 47,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $731,237.50. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 111,781 shares of company stock valued at $1,631,151. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Huntington Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HBAN opened at $15.21 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.89. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 52 week low of $12.05 and a 52 week high of $18.45. The firm has a market cap of $22.22 billion, a PE ratio of 12.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $15.95 and its 200-day moving average is $16.16.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 16.23%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were given a $0.155 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.08%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.41%.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services.