Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Director Sells $101,720.00 in Stock

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,752.92. This represents a 50.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ HFWA opened at $25.48 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Heritage Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $16.55 and a fifty-two week high of $27.58. The stock has a market cap of $870.14 million, a P/E ratio of 23.59 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.38.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. On average, analysts forecast that Heritage Financial Co. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This is an increase from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on HFWA. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Stephens lifted their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Heritage Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday.

Institutional Trading of Heritage Financial

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 105.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 73,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 37,606 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC raised its holdings in Heritage Financial by 46.9% in the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 65,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,417,000 after purchasing an additional 20,792 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Heritage Financial by 4.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,934,852 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,884,000 after buying an additional 80,044 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 71.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,741,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $37,903,000 after buying an additional 725,257 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nwam LLC bought a new position in shares of Heritage Financial in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,194,000. 78.30% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Heritage Financial Company 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.