Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 13th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 13th. This is a positive change from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Hilltop has increased its dividend by an average of 12.3% per year over the last three years. Hilltop has a payout ratio of 38.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Hilltop to earn $1.87 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.5%.

Hilltop Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of HTH stock opened at $31.96 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $29.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.05. Hilltop has a 52 week low of $26.67 and a 52 week high of $35.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.08 billion, a PE ratio of 18.37 and a beta of 1.14.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.27. Hilltop had a net margin of 7.04% and a return on equity of 5.18%. Analysts anticipate that Hilltop will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Hilltop news, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,124 shares in the company, valued at $291,968. This represents a 21.51 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 29.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on HTH shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Hilltop from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Raymond James downgraded shares of Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Hilltop presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.00.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings Inc provides business and consumer banking services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Broker-Dealer, and Mortgage Origination. The Banking segment offers savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; lines and letters of credit, home improvement and equity loans, loans for purchasing and carrying securities, term, agricultural and commercial real estate, equipment loans, and other lending products; and mortgage, commercial and industrial loans, and term and construction finance.