Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) Rating Lowered to Hold at Zacks Research

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday, Zacks reports. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Hilltop’s Q3 2027 earnings at $0.64 EPS, FY2027 earnings at $2.34 EPS, Q1 2028 earnings at $0.48 EPS, Q2 2028 earnings at $0.59 EPS and Q3 2028 earnings at $0.65 EPS.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on HTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Hilltop from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial cut Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Hilltop in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Hilltop from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hilltop has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.00.

Hilltop Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:HTH opened at $36.71 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.10 billion, a PE ratio of 13.60 and a beta of 0.89. Hilltop has a fifty-two week low of $30.78 and a fifty-two week high of $40.41. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.98.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $315.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $306.18 million. Hilltop had a return on equity of 7.40% and a net margin of 10.17%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Hilltop will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hilltop news, Director Rhodes Bobbitt sold 20,000 shares of Hilltop stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.12, for a total transaction of $802,400.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 56,096 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,250,571.52. The trade was a 26.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 52,555 shares of company stock valued at $2,087,714. Company insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hilltop

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Hilltop by 17.4% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,864 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $108,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Hilltop by 935.5% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,738 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $141,000 after acquiring an additional 3,377 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Hilltop by 17.2% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,016 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $544,000 after acquiring an additional 2,053 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Hilltop by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,546,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $98,769,000 after acquiring an additional 24,912 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in Hilltop by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 21,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $823,000 after acquiring an additional 1,103 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

About Hilltop

Hilltop Holdings Inc is a Dallas, Texas-based financial services holding company that provides banking, mortgage lending and securities services through its subsidiaries. The company primarily serves individuals, businesses, government entities and institutional clients, with operations focused largely on the United States and particularly the Texas market.

PlainsCapital Bank, Hilltop’s banking subsidiary, offers commercial and consumer banking products, including loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other financial services.