Renaissance Technologies LLC Increases Stock Holdings in HBT Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBT)

Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in HBT Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBT) by 109.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,500 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,400 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 0.09% of HBT Financial worth $562,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. LSV Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of HBT Financial in the 1st quarter valued at about $183,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in HBT Financial by 19.0% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 95,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,949,000 after buying an additional 15,242 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in HBT Financial by 5.1% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 119,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,444,000 after buying an additional 5,859 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in HBT Financial during the 1st quarter worth $6,497,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of HBT Financial by 6.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 406,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,298,000 after buying an additional 26,135 shares during the period. 78.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HBT. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $27.00 price target (up previously from $25.00) on shares of HBT Financial in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on HBT Financial from $21.50 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. DA Davidson cut HBT Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $26.00 to $24.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on HBT Financial from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HBT Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $24.60.

Insider Activity

In other HBT Financial news, Director Patrick F. Busch sold 11,555 shares of HBT Financial stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.09, for a total transaction of $278,359.95. Following the sale, the director now owns 190,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,577,100. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 59.80% of the company’s stock.

HBT Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HBT opened at $21.12 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $21.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market cap of $667.20 million, a P/E ratio of 9.35 and a beta of 0.86. HBT Financial, Inc. has a 1-year low of $17.69 and a 1-year high of $24.85.

HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.01. HBT Financial had a return on equity of 15.53% and a net margin of 25.61%. The business had revenue of $72.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $56.82 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.58 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that HBT Financial, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HBT Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 6th were paid a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.60%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 6th. HBT Financial’s payout ratio is 33.63%.

HBT Financial Company Profile

HBT Financial, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Heartland Bank and Trust Company that provides business, commercial, and retail banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and municipal entities in Central and Northeastern Illinois, and Eastern Iowa. The company's deposits accounts consist of noninterest-bearing demand deposits, interest-bearing transaction accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposits, health savings accounts, and individual retirement accounts.