American Century Companies Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Heritage Financial Corporation $HFWA

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. reduced its stake in Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: HFWA) by 23.2%, bringing its total holdings to approximately $5.20 million as of the latest SEC filing.
• Wall Street analysts have updated Heritage Financial's rating, with Wall Street Zen downgrading it from "hold" to "sell"; the consensus rating now stands at "Hold" with a price target of $27.67.
• Heritage Financial recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.24, representing an annualized dividend of $0.96 and a dividend yield of 3.9%.

American Century Companies Inc. cut its stake in shares of Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA - Free Report) by 23.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 213,628 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 64,547 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.63% of Heritage Financial worth $5,198,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in HFWA. Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,752,114 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $66,959,000 after buying an additional 545,348 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,068,354 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $50,674,000 after acquiring an additional 33,429 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 15,727.7% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,480,997 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $36,033,000 after acquiring an additional 1,471,640 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 433,678 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $10,625,000 after acquiring an additional 6,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 241,351 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $5,913,000 after acquiring an additional 5,723 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Heritage Financial from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Heritage Financial currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $27.67.

Heritage Financial Trading Down 0.4%

NASDAQ:HFWA traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $24.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 122,825 shares, compared to its average volume of 148,708. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $829.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.09 and a beta of 0.56. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.56. Heritage Financial Corporation has a 1 year low of $19.84 and a 1 year high of $27.58.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $56.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.54 million. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 15.22% and a return on equity of 7.34%. Research analysts expect that Heritage Financial Corporation will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 6th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 6th. Heritage Financial's payout ratio is 67.13%.

Heritage Financial Profile

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.