Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Holdings Cut by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. cut its stake in shares of Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,554 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,580 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.14% of Heritage Financial worth $1,165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 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 purchasing an additional 465,708 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 357.0% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 143,913 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,526,000 after acquiring an additional 112,419 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 83.3% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 225,948 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,536,000 after acquiring an additional 102,665 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 433,296 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,616,000 after acquiring an additional 46,769 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP increased its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 187.0% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 67,559 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,655,000 after acquiring an additional 44,023 shares during the period. 78.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Donald Hinson sold 3,420 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.59, for a total value of $80,677.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 42,087 shares in the company, valued at $992,832.33. This represents a 7.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Frederick B. Rivera sold 4,000 shares of Heritage Financial stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.43, for a total value of $101,720.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,752.92. The trade was a 50.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,311 shares of company stock worth $369,193 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of HFWA stock opened at $21.21 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $720.95 million, a PE ratio of 17.10 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.84. Heritage Financial Co. has a 1 year low of $16.55 and a 1 year high of $27.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $23.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.14.

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

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a boost from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.53%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is presently 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.