Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) Earns “Buy” Rating from DA Davidson

DA Davidson reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. DA Davidson currently has a $28.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock.

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut Heritage Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Heritage Financial has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.75.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 1.0%

HFWA stock opened at $24.85 on Friday. Heritage Financial has a twelve month low of $19.84 and a twelve month high of $27.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $843.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.38 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.62.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $56.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.54 million. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 15.22% and a return on equity of 7.34%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Heritage Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 67.13%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HFWA. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Heritage Financial by 45.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 147,887 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,623,000 after purchasing an additional 46,260 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 2.2% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 193,820 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,716,000 after buying an additional 4,101 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the first quarter valued at about $844,000. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Heritage Financial in the first quarter worth about $613,000. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in Heritage Financial by 26.7% during the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 107,826 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,623,000 after acquiring an additional 22,718 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Company Profile

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.