Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Cuts Stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System reduced its stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 77,085 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 5,335 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Huntington Bancshares were worth $1,254,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Carlson Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Carlson Capital Management now owns 163,575 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,661,000 after acquiring an additional 692 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Huntington Bancshares by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 12,317 shares of the bank’s stock worth $200,000 after buying an additional 699 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Huntington Bancshares by 27.2% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,279 shares of the bank’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 702 shares during the last quarter. Lantz Financial LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 13,766 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $224,000 after acquiring an additional 790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. now owns 11,765 shares of the bank’s stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 795 shares during the period. 80.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Robert W. Baird raised Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. StockNews.com raised Huntington Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Baird R W raised Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Huntington Bancshares presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.35.

Huntington Bancshares Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of HBAN stock opened at $15.02 on Friday. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 52-week low of $12.05 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 capitalization of $21.94 billion, a PE ratio of 12.21, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.12.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 16.23%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a $0.155 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.13%. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is presently 50.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 69,088 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.67, for a total transaction of $1,013,520.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 453,129 shares in the company, valued at $6,647,402.43. This trade represents a 13.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 38,451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total value of $552,925.38. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 335,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,825,036.44. The trade was a 10.28 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.