Short Interest in Heritage Commerce Corp (NASDAQ:HTBK) Decreases By 5.9%

Heritage Commerce Corp (NASDAQ:HTBK) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 832,700 shares, a decline of 5.9% from the September 15th total of 885,100 shares. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 423,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Heritage Commerce Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of HTBK stock traded up $0.11 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $9.89. 476,242 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 395,114. The firm has a market capitalization of $605.82 million, a P/E ratio of 10.75 and a beta of 0.93. Heritage Commerce has a 52-week low of $7.66 and a 52-week high of $10.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $9.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.00.

Heritage Commerce (NASDAQ:HTBK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The financial services provider reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $61.35 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.35 million. Heritage Commerce had a net margin of 19.82% and a return on equity of 7.21%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Heritage Commerce will post 0.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Commerce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 8th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.26%. Heritage Commerce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.52%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HTBK. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in Heritage Commerce by 830.2% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,024,377 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,912,000 after buying an additional 914,249 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Heritage Commerce by 21.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 921,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $8,016,000 after acquiring an additional 160,977 shares during the period. EJF Capital LLC purchased a new position in Heritage Commerce in the first quarter valued at $1,321,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Heritage Commerce by 32.5% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 544,471 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,737,000 after purchasing an additional 133,514 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Heritage Commerce by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,309,141 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,392,000 after purchasing an additional 123,973 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.55% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on HTBK shares. StockNews.com cut Heritage Commerce from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Heritage Commerce from $10.50 to $11.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Heritage Commerce from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th.

About Heritage Commerce

Heritage Commerce Corp operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank of Commerce that provides various commercial and personal banking services to residents and the business/professional community in California. Its deposit products for business banking and retail markets include interest and non-interest-bearing demand, savings, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit and time deposits.