Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) Short Interest Down 6.6% in April

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN - Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 25,160,000 shares, a drop of 6.6% from the March 31st total of 26,950,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 17,730,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Huntington Bancshares

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Julie C. Tutkovics sold 15,541 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.68, for a total value of $197,059.88. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 303,455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,847,809.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Julie C. Tutkovics sold 15,541 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.68, for a total value of $197,059.88. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 303,455 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,847,809.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Kendall A. Kowalski sold 15,948 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.47, for a total value of $214,819.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 21,102 shares in the company, valued at $284,243.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 169,489 shares of company stock valued at $2,286,999 over the last three months. 0.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntington Bancshares

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HBAN. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 59.3% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 46,642,476 shares of the bank's stock valued at $593,408,000 after buying an additional 17,365,446 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $206,703,000. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 715.0% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 4,251,631 shares of the bank's stock valued at $54,081,000 after buying an additional 3,729,974 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 23.7% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,925,067 shares of the bank's stock valued at $186,421,000 after buying an additional 3,438,552 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 641.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 2,775,356 shares of the bank's stock valued at $35,301,000 after buying an additional 2,401,067 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.72% of the company's stock.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

HBAN stock traded up $0.18 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $13.65. The company had a trading volume of 17,794,764 shares, compared to its average volume of 17,601,924. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $13.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.33. Huntington Bancshares has a fifty-two week low of $9.13 and a fifty-two week high of $14.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.77 billion, a PE ratio of 12.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.11.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The bank reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 15.86%. The company had revenue of $2.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.155 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.54%. Huntington Bancshares's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.86%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on HBAN shares. Bank of America upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $14.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $14.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday, April 8th. DA Davidson upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $14.00 to $15.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $15.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.17.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services.