Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold” Rating

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Truist Financial upped their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Cowen started coverage on Huntington Bancshares in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.33.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

Huntington Bancshares stock opened at $17.51 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $15.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.58 billion, a PE ratio of 13.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.90. Huntington Bancshares has a one year low of $11.92 and a one year high of $18.45.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 16.94%. The company had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, April 17th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the bank to buy up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were given a dividend of $0.155 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.54%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.33%.

Insider Activity at Huntington Bancshares

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Brantley J. Standridge sold 70,417 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.69, for a total transaction of $964,008.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 326,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,469,182.64. The trade was a 17.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 59,060 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.36, for a total value of $848,101.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 277,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,982,717.28. This trade represents a 17.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 214,375 shares of company stock worth $3,049,277 in the last ninety days. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Huntington Bancshares

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,956,974 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,611,094,000 after buying an additional 978,565 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 8.7% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 57,186,593 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $858,371,000 after buying an additional 4,586,607 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 32,479,039 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $528,434,000 after buying an additional 8,759,871 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 9.2% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 23,828,775 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $357,670,000 after buying an additional 2,003,683 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 26.2% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 22,011,639 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $330,395,000 after buying an additional 4,576,432 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services.