Allstate Corp Buys Shares of 42,974 Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Allstate Corp purchased a new stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 42,974 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $699,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 10.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 79,474,115 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,179,319,000 after acquiring an additional 7,439,909 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 64,926,419 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,056,353,000 after purchasing an additional 2,218,020 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 36,880,662 shares of the bank’s stock worth $540,422,000 after buying an additional 473,893 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Huntington Bancshares by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 21,825,092 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $355,094,000 after buying an additional 1,506,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Huntington Bancshares in the fourth quarter valued at about $302,826,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on HBAN. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $20.00 target price (up previously from $18.50) on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Huntington Bancshares has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.18.

Huntington Bancshares Trading Up 1.5 %

HBAN stock opened at $15.01 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 52-week low of $12.05 and a 52-week high of $18.45. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.16. The firm has a market cap of $21.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.20, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.07.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Brendan A. Lawlor sold 3,521 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.25, for a total transaction of $53,695.25. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 47,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $731,237.50. The trade was a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 38,451 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total transaction of $552,925.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,825,036.44. This represents a 10.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 111,781 shares of company stock worth $1,631,151 over the last 90 days. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Huntington Bancshares

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.