Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Cuts Stock Position in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD trimmed its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 13.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 86,762,895 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 13,451,073 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned 0.06% of Huntington Bancshares worth $1,411,634,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Huntington Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $302,826,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Huntington Bancshares during the 4th quarter worth approximately $150,444,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in Huntington Bancshares by 36.9% in the 4th 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. Amundi increased its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 26.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 17,435,207 shares of the bank’s stock worth $286,460,000 after acquiring an additional 3,671,235 shares during the period. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. raised its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 356.1% in the fourth quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 4,432,186 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $72,112,000 after acquiring an additional 3,460,328 shares in the last quarter. 80.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Up 1.7 %

Huntington Bancshares stock opened at $14.17 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.52, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.89. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $11.92 and a fifty-two week high of $18.45. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.99.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 16.23%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, April 17th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to purchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be paid a $0.155 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.38%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.33%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 38,451 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total value of $552,925.38. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,825,036.44. The trade was a 10.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kendall A. Kowalski sold 25,419 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.68, for a total value of $347,731.92. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 70,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $961,444.08. This represents a 26.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 207,617 shares of company stock valued at $2,942,892. Insiders own 0.89% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays boosted their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price (down from $20.00) on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $18.50 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.39.

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.