StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF)

Investment analysts at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) in a report released on Tuesday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the bank’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Heartland Financial USA from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $51.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Raymond James raised Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.60.

Heartland Financial USA Stock Up 3.6 %

HTLF stock opened at $43.92 on Tuesday. Heartland Financial USA has a twelve month low of $26.44 and a twelve month high of $45.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $1.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.46 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $41.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.58.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The bank reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.08. Heartland Financial USA had a return on equity of 11.33% and a net margin of 8.17%. The company had revenue of $279.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.73 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.22 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert B. Engel sold 5,928 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.20, for a total transaction of $149,385.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $277,200. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Heartland Financial USA news, Director Robert B. Engel sold 5,928 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.20, for a total value of $149,385.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at $277,200. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert B. Engel sold 7,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.26, for a total value of $191,976.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $429,420. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,529 shares of company stock worth $341,387 in the last three months. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. HTLF Bank acquired a new stake in Heartland Financial USA during the fourth quarter worth about $55,623,000. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. lifted its position in Heartland Financial USA by 506.3% during the first quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors L.P. now owns 394,095 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,852,000 after buying an additional 329,095 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Heartland Financial USA during the fourth quarter worth approximately $11,502,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Heartland Financial USA by 470.7% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 272,767 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,028,000 after buying an additional 224,975 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Heartland Financial USA by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,232,944 shares of the bank’s stock worth $121,591,000 after acquiring an additional 88,886 shares during the last quarter. 71.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Heartland Financial USA Company Profile

Heartland Financial USA, Inc, a bank holding company, provides commercial, small business, and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, demand deposit accounts, NOW accounts, savings, money market, and individual retirement; certificates of deposit; and other time deposits.