Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Purchases New Position in Heritage Financial Corporation $HFWA

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS acquired a new position in shares of Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 8,756 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 14.8% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 520 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Heritage Financial by 53.3% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,557 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $109,000 after buying an additional 1,585 shares during the period. Marshall & Sullivan Inc. WA bought a new stake in Heritage Financial in the second quarter worth $146,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new position in Heritage Financial during the first quarter worth $167,000. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC increased its position in Heritage Financial by 8.3% during the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 12,115 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $295,000 after acquiring an additional 925 shares during the last quarter. 78.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Heritage Financial Price Performance

Shares of HFWA stock opened at $24.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The company has a market capitalization of $823.46 million, a P/E ratio of 14.70 and a beta of 0.57. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $23.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.66. Heritage Financial Corporation has a one year low of $19.84 and a one year high of $27.38.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.56. The firm had revenue of $65.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $65.25 million. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 17.27% and a return on equity of 8.21%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial Corporation will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 5th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.0%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is 58.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on HFWA. DA Davidson set a $29.00 target price on shares of Heritage Financial in a report on Monday, September 29th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Heritage Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Heritage Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Heritage Financial from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Heritage Financial in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heritage Financial

In other news, President Bryan Mcdonald purchased 19,106 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 20th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $22.32 per share, with a total value of $426,445.92. Following the transaction, the president owned 31,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $700,022.16. This represents a 155.88% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Profile

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.