Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Stock Now Rated “Hold” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Shares of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.00.

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on HTH shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Hilltop in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Hilltop from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th.

Hilltop Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HTH opened at $37.78 on Thursday. Hilltop has a 1 year low of $32.17 and a 1 year high of $40.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.74 and a beta of 0.88. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $37.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.72.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by ($0.20). The company had revenue of $309.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $320.37 million. Hilltop had a net margin of 9.08% and a return on equity of 6.51%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Hilltop will post 2.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Hilltop Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 6th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 6th. Hilltop’s payout ratio is presently 36.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hilltop news, Director Rhodes Bobbitt sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.80, for a total transaction of $194,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 25,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $994,870.80. The trade was a 16.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,000 shares of company stock worth $783,000. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hilltop

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Hilltop by 39.8% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 286,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,247,000 after purchasing an additional 81,448 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Hilltop during the 2nd quarter worth $4,067,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Hilltop during the 2nd quarter worth $13,091,000. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Hilltop during the 2nd quarter worth $10,357,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Hilltop by 43.3% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 165,263 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,920,000 after buying an additional 49,900 shares in the last quarter. 57.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Hilltop

Hilltop Holdings Inc (NYSE: HTH) is a Dallas-based financial services holding company. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company provides commercial and consumer banking, mortgage lending, and securities brokerage and investment-banking services.

PlainsCapital Bank is Hilltop’s banking subsidiary and serves businesses, professionals, and individuals primarily in Texas. Its offerings include commercial and real estate lending, deposit accounts, treasury management, wealth management, and other banking services.

Hilltop also operates PrimeLending, a residential mortgage lender that originates home loans through a network of loan officers and offices across the United States.