Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Takes $2.88 Million Position in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 177,140 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $2,882,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Carlson Capital Management raised its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Carlson Capital Management now owns 163,575 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,661,000 after buying an additional 692 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 12,317 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $200,000 after purchasing an additional 699 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 27.2% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,279 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $53,000 after purchasing an additional 702 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 20,019 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 762 shares during the period. Finally, Lantz Financial LLC lifted its position in Huntington Bancshares by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 13,766 shares of the bank’s stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 790 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

Huntington Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of Huntington Bancshares stock opened at $16.09 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $14.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.08, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.89. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a twelve month low of $11.92 and a twelve month high of $18.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 16.23%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be given a dividend of $0.155 per share. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 17th. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is 47.33%.

Insider Transactions at Huntington Bancshares

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 69,088 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.67, for a total value of $1,013,520.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 453,129 shares in the company, valued at $6,647,402.43. The trade was a 13.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 38,451 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total value of $552,925.38. Following the completion of 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 312,456 shares of company stock valued at $4,464,105. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on HBAN. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Baird R W raised Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $16.50 price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.45.

Huntington Bancshares Profile

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.