Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) CEO Sells $166,400.78 in Stock

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) CEO Jeffrey J. Deuel sold 7,033 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.66, for a total transaction of $166,400.78. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 70,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,677,635.96. The trade was a 9.02 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Heritage Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HFWA traded down $0.19 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $23.61. The stock had a trading volume of 367,149 shares, compared to its average volume of 182,413. Heritage Financial Co. has a 52 week low of $16.55 and a 52 week high of $27.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $802.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.01.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial Co. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.07%. This is a positive change from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is 77.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Heritage Financial

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its position in Heritage Financial by 794.1% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 945 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. increased its position in Heritage Financial by 519.0% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 3,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 2,979 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its position in Heritage Financial by 475.6% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 3,989 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 3,296 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Heritage Financial during the fourth quarter worth $157,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Heritage Financial during the fourth quarter worth $166,000. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.