Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) Earns "Buy" Rating from DA Davidson

Key Points

• Heritage Financial's stock has been reaffirmed with a "buy" rating by DA Davidson, setting a price target of $28.00, indicating a potential 13.82% upside from its current price.
• Despite the positive rating from DA Davidson, Wall Street Zen has downgraded the stock from a "hold" to a "sell," reflecting differing analyst views.
• The company reported a Q2 EPS of $0.53, surpassing estimates, but revenue was below expectations at $56.50 million compared to a consensus of $63.54 million.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at DA Davidson in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $28.00 price objective on the financial services provider's stock. DA Davidson's price target would indicate a potential upside of 13.82% from the company's current price.

Separately, Wall Street Zen lowered Heritage Financial from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.75.

Heritage Financial Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of Heritage Financial stock opened at $24.60 on Friday. 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 business's 50 day simple moving average is $23.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.61. The firm has a market cap of $835.17 million, a PE ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 0.56. Heritage Financial has a 52-week low of $19.84 and a 52-week high of $27.58.

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

Institutional Trading of Heritage Financial

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in Heritage Financial by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 116,282 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,772,000 after buying an additional 8,456 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 99.1% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,875 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 33.6% in the 2nd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 38,104 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $908,000 after purchasing an additional 9,587 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Heritage Financial by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 33,129 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $789,000 after buying an additional 2,663 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its position in Heritage Financial by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 250,129 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $5,963,000 after purchasing an additional 3,831 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company's stock.

About Heritage Financial

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.

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