Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.50.

Several analysts have weighed in on HTH shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Hilltop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Zacks Research downgraded Hilltop from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Hilltop from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Hilltop in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hilltop news, major shareholder Gerald J. Ford sold 259,771 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.98, for a total value of $9,866,102.58. Following the sale, the insider owned 7,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $298,788.66. This trade represents a 97.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.46, for a total transaction of $999,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 65,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,531,860.26. This trade represents a 28.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 294,796 shares of company stock valued at $11,225,619 over the last three months. 29.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its holdings in Hilltop by 41.9% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 10,818 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 3,192 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hilltop by 623.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 79,654 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,425,000 after acquiring an additional 68,648 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Hilltop by 5.1% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 27,846 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $848,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Hilltop by 236.4% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 461,206 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,044,000 after acquiring an additional 324,108 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Hilltop by 32.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 796,277 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,247,000 after acquiring an additional 192,991 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

Hilltop Price Performance

Shares of HTH opened at $35.52 on Thursday. Hilltop has a 1 year low of $27.35 and a 1 year high of $40.41. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.98. The firm has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.40 and a beta of 0.92.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The financial services provider reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.23. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.19% and a return on equity of 7.47%. The firm had revenue of $217.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $300.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.55 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Hilltop will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Hilltop Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 13th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 13th. Hilltop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.19%.

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.