Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and twelve have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $17.56.

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th.

Huntington Bancshares Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of HBAN opened at $16.46 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $16.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.02. Huntington Bancshares has a twelve month low of $12.02 and a twelve month high of $18.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.83, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.06.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 14.19%. The company had revenue of $1.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 18th will be paid a $0.155 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.77%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.62%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 28,600 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.67, for a total value of $505,362.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 496,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,765,662.92. The trade was a 5.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 8,644 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.63, for a total transaction of $152,393.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 259,943 shares in the company, valued at $4,582,795.09. This represents a 3.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 43,699 shares of company stock valued at $757,356 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Huntington Bancshares

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HBAN. Arvest Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 3rd quarter worth $2,381,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Huntington Bancshares in the second quarter worth about $744,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Huntington Bancshares by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 844,466 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,414,000 after buying an additional 44,662 shares in the last quarter. Petiole USA ltd acquired a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,454,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,797,771 shares of the bank’s stock worth $27,901,000 after buying an additional 55,602 shares in the last quarter. 80.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Huntington Bancshares

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.