Empire Life Investments Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Empire Life Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 145,887 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $2,374,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HBAN. CX Institutional lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 13.4% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 17,748 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $261,000 after acquiring an additional 2,102 shares in the last quarter. Asset Dedication LLC lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 200.7% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Dedication LLC now owns 1,801 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,202 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 37.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 21,801 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $320,000 after acquiring an additional 5,913 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 55,831 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $821,000 after acquiring an additional 2,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cardinal Capital Management lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 177,296 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,634,000 after acquiring an additional 6,929 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on HBAN shares. Citigroup boosted their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $18.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $16.25 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $17.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $16.50 to $17.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Huntington Bancshares has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.06.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HBAN opened at $16.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $16.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.87. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a one year low of $12.05 and a one year high of $18.44. The firm has a market cap of $24.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.07.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 16.23%. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.27 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.155 per share. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.41%.

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.