Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on HBAN. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Baird R W upgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $18.50 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $16.50 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Argus set a $17.00 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Friday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.33.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HBAN opened at $17.51 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $15.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.67. Huntington Bancshares has a 1-year low of $11.92 and a 1-year high of $18.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market cap of $25.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.93.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a net margin of 16.94% and a return on equity of 11.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, April 17th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the bank to repurchase up to 5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Marcy C. Hingst sold 13,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.79, for a total value of $216,323.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 337,879 shares in the company, valued at $5,335,109.41. The trade was a 3.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Helga Houston sold 42,345 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.72, for a total transaction of $623,318.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 592,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,715,991.68. The trade was a 6.67% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 214,375 shares of company stock worth $3,049,277. 0.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 1,497.1% in the 2nd quarter. Trinity Financial Advisors LLC now owns 286,896 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,853,000 after purchasing an additional 268,933 shares during the last quarter. City Center Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Huntington Bancshares in the 2nd quarter valued at about $220,000. AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs acquired a new position in Huntington Bancshares in the 1st quarter valued at about $976,000. Voya Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 422,108 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lynx Investment Advisory raised its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory now owns 34,600 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

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.