Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $29.3333.

HFWA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. DA Davidson set a $29.00 price objective on shares of Heritage Financial in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of Heritage Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Heritage Financial from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Heritage Financial in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Heritage Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 15th.

Institutional Trading of Heritage Financial

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 316.9% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 1,255 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Heritage Financial by 27,871.4% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Heritage Financial by 99.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,431 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in Heritage Financial by 14.8% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $98,000 after buying an additional 520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 53.3% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $109,000 after buying an additional 1,585 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 4.3%

Shares of Heritage Financial stock opened at $23.27 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $790.18 million, a PE ratio of 14.10 and a beta of 0.57. Heritage Financial has a 52 week low of $19.84 and a 52 week high of $27.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $23.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56. The company had revenue of $65.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $65.25 million. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 8.21% and a net margin of 17.27%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.18%.

About Heritage Financial

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.