Short Interest in Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Drops By 7.9%

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 840,000 shares, a drop of 7.9% from the October 31st total of 911,600 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 327,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 30,851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.61, for a total value of $1,006,051.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 77,748 shares in the company, valued at $2,535,362.28. This represents a 28.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,500 shares of Hilltop stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total value of $80,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $291,968. This trade represents a 21.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 29.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HTH. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Hilltop in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Hilltop during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Hilltop during the third quarter valued at $49,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hilltop during the second quarter worth about $69,000. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Hilltop by 36.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,296 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $106,000 after purchasing an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. 57.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.50.

Hilltop Trading Up 0.1 %

Hilltop stock traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $31.68. 213,781 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 314,060. The company has a market cap of $2.06 billion, a PE ratio of 19.39 and a beta of 1.14. Hilltop has a one year low of $28.58 and a one year high of $35.66. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $31.65 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.55.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.09. Hilltop had a return on equity of 4.90% and a net margin of 6.65%. The firm had revenue of $411.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $302.29 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.57 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Hilltop will post 1.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hilltop Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Hilltop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.72%.

About Hilltop

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.