Northern Trust Corp Sells 240,443 Shares of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH)

Northern Trust Corp trimmed its holdings in Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH - Free Report) by 29.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 576,881 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 240,443 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned about 0.89% of Hilltop worth $16,516,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of HTH. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Hilltop by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,383,034 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $154,116,000 after purchasing an additional 32,605 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Hilltop by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 826,187 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $23,654,000 after buying an additional 32,127 shares during the period. Hodges Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Hilltop by 20.7% during the fourth quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 522,503 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $14,959,000 after acquiring an additional 89,724 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Hilltop by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 511,418 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $14,642,000 after acquiring an additional 30,861 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hilltop by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 454,929 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $13,025,000 after acquiring an additional 22,704 shares during the period. 57.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Hilltop from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Raymond James upgraded Hilltop from an "underperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd.

Hilltop Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of HTH stock opened at $30.75 on Thursday. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $29.70 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.36. Hilltop Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.67 and a 1 year high of $35.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.67 and a beta of 0.87.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.37. The firm had revenue of $318.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $290.68 million. Hilltop had a return on equity of 5.18% and a net margin of 7.04%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Hilltop Holdings Inc. will post 1.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hilltop Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 8th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. Hilltop's payout ratio is 36.55%.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings Inc provides business and consumer banking services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Broker-Dealer, and Mortgage Origination. The Banking segment offers savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; lines and letters of credit, home improvement and equity loans, loans for purchasing and carrying securities, term, agricultural and commercial real estate, equipment loans, and other lending products; and mortgage, commercial and industrial loans, and term and construction finance.

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