Hilltop Holdings Inc. $HTH Shares Sold by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lessened its stake in shares of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) by 3.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,623,176 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 93,051 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Hilltop were worth $93,961,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of HTH. Strategic Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Hilltop in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Hilltop by 584.7% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 918 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Hilltop by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,153 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 313 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in shares of Hilltop in the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Hilltop by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,817 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 483 shares in the last quarter. 57.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HTH has been the subject of several analyst reports. Zacks Research raised shares of Hilltop from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Hilltop from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded Hilltop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Hilltop in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.00.

Hilltop Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE HTH opened at $39.51 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $38.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.42. Hilltop Holdings Inc. has a 52 week low of $29.20 and a 52 week high of $40.41. The stock has a market cap of $2.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.63 and a beta of 0.88.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $315.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.18 million. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 7.40%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.57 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Hilltop Holdings Inc. will post 2.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Hilltop Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 7th will be given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 7th. This is a positive change from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Hilltop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Rhodes R. Bobbitt sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.00, for a total value of $380,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 87,016 shares in the company, valued at $3,306,608. This represents a 10.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.00, for a total value of $76,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 7,912 shares in the company, valued at approximately $300,656. The trade was a 20.18% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last three months, insiders sold 32,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,206,000. Insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

About Hilltop

Hilltop Holdings, Inc (NYSE: HTH) is a Dallas, Texas–based financial holding company offering commercial banking, mortgage lending and capital markets services through its three primary subsidiaries: PlainsCapital Corporation, PrimeLending and HilltopSecurities. PlainsCapital provides deposit, lending and treasury management solutions to small and mid-sized businesses, professionals and individuals. PrimeLending specializes in home purchase and refinance loans, serving retail, wholesale and correspondent channels.