Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) Cut to Strong Sell at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) from a sell rating to a strong sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded Hilltop from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $42.00 price target on shares of Hilltop in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Hilltop from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Hilltop from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.00.

Hilltop Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE HTH opened at $36.57 on Friday. Hilltop has a twelve month low of $31.75 and a twelve month high of $40.41. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.24 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $37.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.65.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The financial services provider reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.64 by ($0.20). The company had revenue of $309.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $320.37 million. Hilltop had a return on equity of 6.51% and a net margin of 9.08%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Hilltop will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Hilltop Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 6th will be paid a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 6th. Hilltop’s payout ratio is presently 36.67%.

Insider Activity

In other Hilltop news, Director Rhodes Bobbitt sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.80, for a total transaction of $194,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 25,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $994,870.80. This represents a 16.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,555 shares of company stock worth $2,087,714. Corporate insiders own 5.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of HTH. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Hilltop in the second quarter valued at about $256,179,000. State Street Corp grew its position in Hilltop by 1.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,546,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $98,769,000 after buying an additional 24,912 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Hilltop during the second quarter worth about $13,091,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Hilltop during the second quarter valued at about $10,357,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Hilltop by 39.8% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 286,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,247,000 after acquiring an additional 81,448 shares during the period. 57.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Hilltop

Hilltop Holdings Inc (NYSE: HTH) is a Dallas-based financial services holding company. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company provides commercial and consumer banking, mortgage lending, and securities brokerage and investment-banking services.

PlainsCapital Bank is Hilltop’s banking subsidiary and serves businesses, professionals, and individuals primarily in Texas. Its offerings include commercial and real estate lending, deposit accounts, treasury management, wealth management, and other banking services.

Hilltop also operates PrimeLending, a residential mortgage lender that originates home loans through a network of loan officers and offices across the United States.