Intech Investment Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA)

Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) by 85.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 34,307 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,840 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Heritage Financial were worth $841,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of HFWA. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 26.7% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,206,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $54,066,000 after acquiring an additional 465,708 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Heritage Financial by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,594,963 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,722,000 after purchasing an additional 4,012 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Heritage Financial by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,249,905 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,623,000 after buying an additional 8,731 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 189,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,648,000 after buying an additional 5,751 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 0.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 123,283 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,684,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Heritage Financial

In other news, Director Frederick B. Rivera sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.43, for a total transaction of $101,720.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,752.92. This trade represents a 50.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey J. Deuel sold 7,033 shares of Heritage Financial stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.66, for a total value of $166,400.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 70,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,677,635.96. This represents a 9.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,311 shares of company stock worth $369,193 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of HFWA stock opened at $23.78 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $808.31 million, a PE ratio of 19.18 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.84. The business’s fifty day moving average is $24.48 and its 200 day moving average is $24.03. Heritage Financial Co. has a 52-week low of $16.55 and a 52-week high of $27.58.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 13.64% and a return on equity of 7.17%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial Co. will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This is a boost from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.42%.

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.