Insider Selling: Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) VP Sells 17,455 Shares of Stock

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) VP Brendan Lawlor sold 17,455 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.93, for a total value of $330,423.15. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president owned 42,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $802,594.14. The trade was a 29.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Huntington Bancshares Trading Down 3.3%

HBAN traded down $0.60 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $17.33. 37,719,114 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 42,085,160. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $17.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.99. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 1-year low of $11.91 and a 1-year high of $19.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 22nd. The bank reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.03). Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.98% and a net margin of 17.71%.The company had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.21 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.34 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 18th will be paid a $0.155 dividend. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 18th. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.60%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on HBAN. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $21.00 price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $21.00 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Stephens lifted their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Huntington Bancshares from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.60.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntington Bancshares

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HBAN. HRT Financial LP lifted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 578.3% in the 4th quarter. HRT Financial LP now owns 1,614,292 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,007,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376,311 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Huntington Bancshares by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 376,497 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,532,000 after buying an additional 13,114 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in shares of Huntington Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at $3,794,000. StoneX Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. StoneX Group Inc. now owns 12,434 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $217,000 after buying an additional 1,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Huntington Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at about $75,236,000. Institutional investors own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ: HBAN) is a bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, that provides a broad range of banking and financial services through its principal subsidiary, Huntington National Bank. The company’s operations are centered on retail and commercial banking, and it serves individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, and institutional customers.

Huntington’s product offerings include traditional deposit and lending products, consumer and commercial loans, mortgage origination and servicing, auto financing, and business banking solutions.