HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded HBT Financial from “Buy” to “Hold,” while analysts remain split with three Buy and three Hold ratings. MarketBeat lists a “Moderate Buy” consensus and a $33.25 average price target.
• HBT shares opened at $35.84, near their 52-week high of $36.83, and trade above both their 50-day and 200-day moving averages. The company recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.78 EPS versus a $0.73 estimate.
• Institutional investors own 78.55% of HBT Financial, with several funds increasing their holdings during the first quarter, including Heartland Bank & Trust, Dimensional Fund Advisors and the Swiss National Bank.

HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on HBT. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of HBT Financial from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b+)" rating in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson increased their price objective on HBT Financial from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on HBT Financial from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Zacks Research cut HBT Financial from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on HBT Financial from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, HBT Financial has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $33.25.

HBT Financial Stock Performance

Shares of HBT opened at $35.84 on Friday. The company's 50 day moving average price is $31.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.92. HBT Financial has a 52 week low of $22.36 and a 52 week high of $36.83. The company has a market capitalization of $1.30 billion, a PE ratio of 15.38 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.85.

HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 27th. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.05. HBT Financial had a net margin of 23.44% and a return on equity of 14.03%. The firm had revenue of $80.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.36 million. Research analysts expect that HBT Financial will post 3.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HBT. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in HBT Financial in the first quarter worth $3,349,000. Heartland Bank & Trust Co raised its holdings in HBT Financial by 857.6% during the first quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co now owns 160,487 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,288,000 after buying an additional 143,727 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in HBT Financial by 2.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 561,159 shares of the company's stock valued at $14,995,000 after buying an additional 15,350 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its position in shares of HBT Financial by 17.2% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 28,600 shares of the company's stock worth $764,000 after buying an additional 4,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of HBT Financial by 16.6% in the first quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 25,516 shares of the company's stock worth $682,000 after buying an additional 3,640 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.55% of the company's stock.

About HBT Financial

HBT Financial, Inc is the bank holding company for HomeTrust Bank, a community-focused financial institution based in Lenoir, North Carolina. Through its subsidiary, HomeTrust Bank, the company provides a full suite of personal and business banking services across western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and Upstate South Carolina. The company's operations include a network of branch offices, ATMs and online banking platforms designed to serve both urban and rural communities in its primary market areas.

HomeTrust Bank's product offerings encompass traditional deposit accounts such as checking, savings and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit.

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