Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) Short Interest Update

Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) saw a significant growth in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 653,900 shares, a growth of 5.8% from the March 31st total of 617,800 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 270,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Heartland Financial USA

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HTLF. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the third quarter valued at $232,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Heartland Financial USA by 1.8% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,785 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $612,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Heartland Financial USA by 5.4% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 11,560 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $340,000 after purchasing an additional 593 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Heartland Financial USA by 1.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 292,015 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,594,000 after purchasing an additional 4,217 shares during the period. Finally, Bailard Inc. boosted its holdings in Heartland Financial USA by 5.9% in the third quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 23,465 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $691,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the period. 71.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HTLF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on Heartland Financial USA from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. DA Davidson raised their target price on Heartland Financial USA from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Raymond James upgraded Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $41.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. TheStreet downgraded Heartland Financial USA from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Heartland Financial USA from $41.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.00.

Heartland Financial USA Price Performance

NASDAQ:HTLF opened at $42.11 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market cap of $1.80 billion, a PE ratio of 24.92 and a beta of 1.06. Heartland Financial USA has a one year low of $26.10 and a one year high of $43.17.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The bank reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $279.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $182.73 million. Heartland Financial USA had a return on equity of 11.56% and a net margin of 8.57%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.22 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Financial USA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. Heartland Financial USA’s payout ratio is presently 71.01%.

About Heartland Financial USA

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.