HBT Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBT) Director Sells $198,160.00 in Stock

HBT Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBT) Director Patrick F. Busch sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.77, for a total value of $198,160.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 182,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,508,140. The trade was a 4.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

HBT Financial Trading Up 0.6 %

HBT traded up $0.14 during trading on Thursday, hitting $25.55. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 53,290 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,787. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $22.88 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market cap of $806.36 million, a PE ratio of 11.31 and a beta of 0.89. HBT Financial, Inc. has a twelve month low of $17.75 and a twelve month high of $26.25.

HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.04. HBT Financial had a net margin of 24.99% and a return on equity of 14.57%. On average, analysts expect that HBT Financial, Inc. will post 2.34 earnings per share for the current year.

HBT Financial announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, December 18th that allows the company to repurchase $15.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 2.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

HBT Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 4th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 4th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.29%. This is a positive change from HBT Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. HBT Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.63%.

Institutional Trading of HBT Financial

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rosenthal Henry Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of HBT Financial during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $930,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in HBT Financial by 70.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $95,000 after acquiring an additional 1,784 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in HBT Financial by 43.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 57,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,247,000 after acquiring an additional 17,266 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of HBT Financial by 1.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 251,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,501,000 after purchasing an additional 3,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of HBT Financial by 0.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 309,110 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,764,000 after purchasing an additional 1,989 shares during the last quarter. 78.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on HBT shares. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on HBT Financial from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on HBT Financial from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HBT Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.80.

HBT Financial Company Profile

HBT Financial, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Heartland Bank and Trust Company that provides business, commercial, and retail banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and municipal entities in Central and Northeastern Illinois, and Eastern Iowa. The company's deposits accounts consist of noninterest-bearing demand deposits, interest-bearing transaction accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposits, health savings accounts, and individual retirement accounts.