Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the four brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.50.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Heritage Financial by 133.7% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 786 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Heritage Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Heritage Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd bought a new position in Heritage Financial during the second quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Heritage Financial in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Stock Down 2.2 %

NASDAQ:HFWA opened at $22.28 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $19.43. Heritage Financial has a 52-week low of $15.50 and a 52-week high of $23.82. The company has a market cap of $772.89 million, a PE ratio of 16.75 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.81.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.04. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 14.59% and a return on equity of 7.95%. The company had revenue of $56.36 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.27 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Heritage Financial will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.13%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 7th. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 69.17%.

Heritage Financial Company 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.