Hilltop Holdings Inc. (HTH) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 13th

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 13th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 13th. This is an increase from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Hilltop has raised its dividend by an average of 12.3% per year over the last three years. Hilltop has a dividend payout ratio of 40.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Hilltop to earn $1.48 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.9%.

Hilltop Price Performance

Shares of Hilltop stock opened at $30.13 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $29.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.21. Hilltop has a 1 year low of $26.67 and a 1 year high of $35.32. The stock has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a PE ratio of 18.48 and a beta of 1.15.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.27. Hilltop had a net margin of 6.65% and a return on equity of 4.90%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Hilltop will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Hilltop

In other news, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 30,851 shares of Hilltop stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.61, for a total value of $1,006,051.11. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 77,748 shares in the company, valued at $2,535,362.28. This trade represents a 28.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,500 shares of Hilltop stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $291,968. This trade represents a 21.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 29.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on HTH shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Hilltop from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Raymond James lowered shares of Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have given a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.50.

About Hilltop

Hilltop Holdings Inc provides business and consumer banking services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Broker-Dealer, and Mortgage Origination. The Banking segment offers savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; lines and letters of credit, home improvement and equity loans, loans for purchasing and carrying securities, term, agricultural and commercial real estate, equipment loans, and other lending products; and mortgage, commercial and industrial loans, and term and construction finance.