JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) Price Target to $16.00

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) had its price objective trimmed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $18.50 to $16.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the bank’s stock.

HBAN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $17.50 to $17.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.94.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of Huntington Bancshares stock opened at $12.60 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $18.41 billion, a PE ratio of 10.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $15.79 and a 200-day moving average of $16.14. Huntington Bancshares has a 1-year low of $12.05 and a 1-year high of $18.45.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share 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 in the previous year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were given a dividend of $0.155 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.92%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 69,088 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.67, for a total transaction of $1,013,520.96. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 453,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,647,402.43. This represents a 13.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Brendan A. Lawlor sold 3,521 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.25, for a total transaction of $53,695.25. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 47,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $731,237.50. This trade represents a 6.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 111,781 shares of company stock worth $1,631,151. Company insiders own 0.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Huntington Bancshares

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Huntington Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at $302,826,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth about $150,444,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 36.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 32,479,039 shares of the bank’s stock worth $528,434,000 after acquiring an additional 8,759,871 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Huntington Bancshares by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,474,115 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,179,319,000 after acquiring an additional 7,439,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 126.6% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 7,048,773 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $114,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,938,769 shares during the last quarter. 80.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Huntington Bancshares

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.