Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) to Buyback $1.00 billion in Outstanding Stock

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, April 17th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to purchase up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Baird R W raised shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays lifted their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $18.50 price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Huntington Bancshares has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.94.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HBAN opened at $13.66 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.00. Huntington Bancshares has a 52 week low of $11.92 and a 52 week high of $18.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.89. The firm has a market cap of $19.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.89.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. Huntington Bancshares had a net margin of 16.23% and a return on equity of 11.23%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be paid a $0.155 dividend. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.54%. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is 50.41%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Huntington Bancshares

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 69,088 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.67, for a total value of $1,013,520.96. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 453,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,647,402.43. The trade was a 13.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Brendan A. Lawlor sold 3,521 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.25, for a total transaction of $53,695.25. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 47,950 shares in the company, 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. Insiders sold a total of 111,781 shares of company stock valued at $1,631,151 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.89% of the company’s stock.

Huntington Bancshares Company Profile

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.