Woodward Diversified Capital LLC Takes Position in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Woodward Diversified Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,183 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $153,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Huntington Bancshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. LFA Lugano Financial Advisors SA purchased a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 1st quarter worth approximately $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 516.3% during the 1st quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,231 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 1,869 shares during the last quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on HBAN shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.50 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Truist Financial raised their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $18.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Argus set a $17.00 price target on Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Wolfe Research upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $18.50 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.48.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Brantley J. Standridge sold 70,417 shares of Huntington Bancshares 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 directly owned 326,456 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,469,182.64. The trade was a 17.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Helga Houston sold 42,345 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.72, for a total value of $623,318.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 592,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,715,991.68. This represents a 6.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 214,375 shares of company stock worth $3,049,277. Corporate insiders own 0.89% of the company’s stock.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Up 0.5%

HBAN opened at $16.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.93. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 12 month low of $11.92 and a 12 month high of $18.45.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.34 EPS 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 return on equity of 11.44% and a net margin of 16.94%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were issued a $0.155 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.73%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.33%.

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

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.