The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Heartland Financial USA Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Financial company by 1.01% to 2.94 million shares with purchase of 29299.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 6.93% valued currently at $137.07 million. In addition, EARNEST Partners LLC raised its holdings by 96842.0 to 2.8 million shares. And Dimensional Fund Advisors LP has lifted its position by 3.74% or 73970.0 shares – to 2.05 million shares.
With over 0.13 million Heartland Financial USA Inc. (HTLF) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $46.36 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $6.07 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 8.67% and its price on 01/20/23 gained nearly 2.23%. Currently, there are 42.58M common shares owned by the public and among those 38.67M shares have been available to trade.
Top 5 Undervalued Stocks To Own In 2023
Microchip Maker Releases "World's Most Powerful Data Center CPU". It could allow the company who manufactures it to lead the industry as the global microchip shortage continues into the coming year. We've put together a free research report that explains all the details. Not only will you find out why analysts believe this chip manufacturer could lead the pack, you will also discover four more potential winners for the coming year.
Click here to download your Free Research Report…
Sponsored
An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for HTLF have a consensus price objective of $54.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $55.00 and a low of $52.00. The average price target is 14.15% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 10.85% over that period. But an upside of 15.71% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $54.50.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 60 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 60 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 60,542 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 0 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 0 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Heartland Financial USA Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, iShares Russell 2000 ETF, and Thrivent Small Cap Stock Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 1.11 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $51.87 million. The company bought an additional 8615.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.62% of the shares outstanding. iShares Russell 2000 ETF sold 9821.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 0.94 million shares valued at over $43.78 million and representing 2.21% of the shares outstanding. Thrivent Small Cap Stock Fund bought 0.11 million shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.86 million shares at a value of $40.28 million. Thrivent Small Cap Stock Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.04% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Heartland Financial USA Inc. (NASDAQ: HTLF) opened at $45.82, up $0.47 from a prior closing price of $45.35. However, the script later moved the day high at 46.36, up 2.23%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -1.51% and -0.52% over the past three months. HTLF shares are trading -0.56% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -11.32% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $39.27 and touched a high of $53.58 over the same period. HTLF has an average intraday trading volume of 129.64K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 0.18%, -2.38%, and 2.45% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Heartland Financial USA Inc. (NASDAQ: HTLF) shares accounts for 63.90% of the company’s 42.58M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 35.41%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 7.69% and 28.12% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1.92B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.07. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 10.22, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $4.54. The company has a PEG of 1.02 and the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.24. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.03% over the week and 1.90% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Heartland Financial USA Inc. (HTLF) will achieve an EPS of $1.26 for the current quarter, $1.33 for the next quarter and $5.43 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.24 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.29. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.27 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 39.80%, and 11.97% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 10.00% over the next five years, compared to 9.20% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate Heartland Financial USA Inc. (HTLF) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 3 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the HTLF, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Keefe Bruyette stated their Mkt Perform rating for the stock in a research note on December 13, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $54. DA Davidson coverage for the Heartland Financial USA Inc. (HTLF) stock in a research note released on October 06, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $48. Stephens was of a view on October 26, 2021 that the stock is Overweight, while Keefe Bruyette gave the stock Outperform rating on September 07, 2021, issuing a price target of $60. DA Davidson on their part issued Buy rating on December 18, 2020.
