Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Receives $25.00 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the four brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $25.00.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on HFWA shares. Stephens increased their price objective on Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heritage Financial

In other Heritage Financial news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of Heritage Financial stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total transaction of $78,837.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $533,153.50. The trade was a 12.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Heritage Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HFWA. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 133.7% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 786 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the second quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Price Performance

HFWA opened at $26.11 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $21.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Heritage Financial has a 1 year low of $16.55 and a 1 year high of $27.58. The firm has a market cap of $891.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.18 and a beta of 0.55.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.09). Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 12.27%. The company had revenue of $81.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Heritage Financial will post 1.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were paid a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 6th. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is 85.19%.

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.