Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Stock Rated "Hold" by Wall Street Brokerages

Key Points

• Wall Street maintains a “Hold” consensus on Hilltop Holdings, with four hold, one sell and one buy rating among six analysts. The average 12-month price target is $40, above the reported opening price of $36.39.
• Hilltop exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $0.63 versus the $0.49 consensus and revenue of $315.81 million versus $306.18 million expected.
• The company increased its quarterly dividend from $0.20 to $0.22 per share, equivalent to an annualized dividend of $0.88 and a 2.4% yield; insiders have sold more than 52,000 shares over the past 90 days.

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH - Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the six research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $40.00.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on HTH shares. Zacks Research downgraded Hilltop from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Hilltop from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler restated a "neutral" rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Hilltop in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings cut Hilltop from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Hilltop from a "market perform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th.

Insider Transactions at Hilltop

In other Hilltop news, Director Rhodes Bobbitt sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.12, for a total value of $802,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 56,096 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,250,571.52. This represents a 26.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 52,555 shares of company stock worth $2,087,714 in the last ninety days. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hilltop

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HTH. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Hilltop by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,864 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $108,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Hilltop by 935.5% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,738 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $141,000 after acquiring an additional 3,377 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Hilltop by 17.2% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,016 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $544,000 after acquiring an additional 2,053 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Hilltop by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,546,898 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $98,769,000 after acquiring an additional 24,912 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Hilltop by 5.5% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 21,219 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $823,000 after acquiring an additional 1,103 shares during the period. 57.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Hilltop Stock Performance

HTH opened at $36.39 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $38.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.97. Hilltop has a 52 week low of $30.78 and a 52 week high of $40.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a PE ratio of 13.48 and a beta of 0.89.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.14. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 7.40%. The company had revenue of $315.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $306.18 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Hilltop will post 2.55 EPS for the current year.

Hilltop Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 7th. This is a positive change from Hilltop's previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. Hilltop's payout ratio is 32.59%.

About Hilltop

Hilltop Holdings Inc is a Dallas, Texas-based financial services holding company that provides banking, mortgage lending and securities services through its subsidiaries. The company primarily serves individuals, businesses, government entities and institutional clients, with operations focused largely on the United States and particularly the Texas market.

PlainsCapital Bank, Hilltop's banking subsidiary, offers commercial and consumer banking products, including loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other financial services.

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