Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at StockNews.com

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

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $51.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.60.

Heartland Financial USA Price Performance

Shares of HTLF opened at $57.41 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $53.22 and its 200-day moving average is $44.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.46 billion, a PE ratio of 34.58 and a beta of 0.95. Heartland Financial USA has a fifty-two week low of $26.44 and a fifty-two week high of $59.16.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The bank reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.01. Heartland Financial USA had a net margin of 7.12% and a return on equity of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $188.92 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $183.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.72 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Heartland Financial USA news, EVP Lo B. Nestman sold 4,389 shares of Heartland Financial USA stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.14, for a total value of $220,064.46. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HTLF. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in Heartland Financial USA during the second quarter worth about $2,231,000. Water Island Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $800,000. Creative Planning increased its stake in Heartland Financial USA by 90.4% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 35,399 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,573,000 after acquiring an additional 16,808 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Heartland Financial USA by 4.7% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 22,119 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $983,000 after purchasing an additional 984 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Heartland Financial USA by 2,309.0% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 710,923 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,601,000 after purchasing an additional 681,412 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 71.55% of the company’s stock.

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.