Verition Fund Management LLC Sells 780,868 Shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated $HBAN

Verition Fund Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 24.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,467,963 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 780,868 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Huntington Bancshares were worth $42,819,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in HBAN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 191,319,041 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,319,385,000 after purchasing an additional 14,338,222 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Huntington Bancshares by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 77,228,656 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,351,806,000 after purchasing an additional 3,438,501 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 3.9% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 63,302,953 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,091,615,000 after buying an additional 2,363,905 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 59,062,922 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,020,017,000 after buying an additional 861,263 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,171,993 shares of the bank’s stock worth $746,257,000 after buying an additional 3,074,673 shares during the period. 80.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler raised shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $18.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 23rd. Wolfe Research cut their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $21.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Barclays downgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, April 20th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Friday. Finally, DA Davidson cut their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Huntington Bancshares currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.10.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of Huntington Bancshares stock opened at $17.52 on Monday. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 52 week low of $14.89 and a 52 week high of $19.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $16.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.84. The company has a market cap of $35.52 billion, a PE ratio of 13.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.94.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.21. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.42% and a net margin of 16.63%.The company had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.34 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.155 per share. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 17th. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is currently 47.69%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James D. Rollins III bought 4,798 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 4th. The stock was bought at an average price of $20.30 per share, for a total transaction of $97,399.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $203,000. This trade represents a 92.23% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 33,500 shares of company stock valued at $617,542. Corporate insiders own 0.67% 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.