Wells Fargo & Company MN Sells 470,913 Shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Wells Fargo & Company MN lessened its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 5,430,830 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 470,913 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in Huntington Bancshares were worth $69,080,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Huntington Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 31.8% during the 3rd quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 3,992 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at $51,000. 80.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Huntington Bancshares news, Director Ann B. Crane sold 58,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.54, for a total value of $785,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 192,247 shares in the company, valued at $2,603,024.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, Director Ann B. Crane sold 58,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.54, for a total transaction of $785,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 192,247 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,603,024.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.66, for a total value of $409,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 305,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,178,375.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 208,551 shares of company stock valued at $2,834,671 over the last ninety days. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HBAN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group raised Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $14.00 to $15.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised 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 report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $15.17.

Huntington Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of HBAN traded up $0.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $13.74. 8,929,129 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,992,201. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $13.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.81. The stock has a market cap of $19.91 billion, a PE ratio of 12.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.09. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 12 month low of $9.25 and a 12 month high of $14.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The bank reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.74 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.21 EPS 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. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 17th. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 55.86%.

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.