Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-two analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $18.08.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Wednesday, May 21st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $18.50 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $16.50 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Monday, April 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Brantley J. Standridge sold 70,417 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.69, for a total transaction of $964,008.73. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 326,456 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,469,182.64. This trade represents a 17.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kendall A. Kowalski sold 25,419 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.68, for a total transaction of $347,731.92. Following the sale, the insider now 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. Insiders sold a total of 214,375 shares of company stock worth $3,049,277 in the last three months. 0.89% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Huntington Bancshares

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 422,108 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,566 shares in the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 3.7% in the first quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory now owns 34,600 shares of the bank’s stock worth $519,000 after acquiring an additional 1,226 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 42.3% in the first quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 47,324 shares of the bank’s stock worth $710,000 after acquiring an additional 14,062 shares during the period. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares in the first quarter worth approximately $29,673,000. Finally, Jacobi Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 9.5% in the first quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 25,922 shares of the bank’s stock worth $389,000 after acquiring an additional 2,243 shares during the period. 80.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Huntington Bancshares Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of HBAN opened at $16.28 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.43, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.67. Huntington Bancshares has a twelve month low of $11.92 and a twelve month high of $18.45.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Huntington Bancshares had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.44%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.81%. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is 47.33%.

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

Huntington Bancshares Company 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.