Ieq Capital LLC Buys New Shares in Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA)

Ieq Capital LLC bought a new position in Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 11,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Heritage Financial by 26.7% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,206,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,066,000 after acquiring an additional 465,708 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Heritage Financial by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,594,963 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,722,000 after acquiring an additional 4,012 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Heritage Financial by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 189,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,648,000 after acquiring an additional 5,751 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Heritage Financial by 0.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 123,283 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,684,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in Heritage Financial by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 118,851 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,912,000 after acquiring an additional 5,723 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com raised Heritage Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heritage Financial

In related news, Director Frederick B. Rivera sold 4,000 shares of Heritage Financial stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.43, for a total value of $101,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $97,752.92. The trade was a 50.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.68% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ HFWA opened at $25.27 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $863.07 million, a PE ratio of 20.38 and a beta of 0.56. Heritage Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $16.55 and a 52-week high of $27.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.84. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $24.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $23.85.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 13.64%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Heritage Financial Co. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. This is a boost from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.42%.

Heritage Financial Profile

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.