Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) Short Interest Up 19.5% in March

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) was the target of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 70,000,000 shares, a growth of 19.5% from the February 28th total of 58,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 21,990,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days. Approximately 4.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Huntington Bancshares

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 69,088 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.67, for a total transaction of $1,013,520.96. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 453,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,647,402.43. The trade was a 13.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Brendan A. Lawlor sold 3,521 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.25, for a total value of $53,695.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 47,950 shares in the company, valued at $731,237.50. This represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 111,781 shares of company stock worth $1,631,151. 0.89% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Huntington Bancshares

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at about $302,826,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $150,444,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Huntington Bancshares by 36.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 32,479,039 shares of the bank’s stock worth $528,434,000 after acquiring an additional 8,759,871 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,474,115 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,179,319,000 after purchasing an additional 7,439,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 126.6% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 7,048,773 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $114,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,938,769 shares in the last quarter. 80.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Huntington Bancshares Price Performance

NASDAQ HBAN opened at $13.46 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $19.66 billion, a PE ratio of 10.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.14. Huntington Bancshares has a 52 week low of $12.05 and a 52 week high of $18.45.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a net margin of 16.23% and a return on equity of 11.23%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. Research analysts predict that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were given a $0.155 dividend. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 18th. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.41%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on HBAN shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. StockNews.com raised shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $18.50 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.94.

Huntington Bancshares Company Profile

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services.