Insider Selling: Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Director Sells 858 Shares of Stock

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Director Amy E. Curran sold 858 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.77, for a total transaction of $20,394.66. Following the transaction, the director now owns 24,353 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $578,870.81. This trade represents a 3.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Heritage Financial Stock Up 0.3 %

HFWA stock opened at $23.67 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $804.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.09 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Heritage Financial Co. has a 12 month low of $16.55 and a 12 month high of $27.58. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $24.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.01.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 forecast that Heritage Financial Co. will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This is a boost from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 77.42%.

Institutional Trading of Heritage Financial

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 794.1% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 945 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 519.0% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 3,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 2,979 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 475.6% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 3,989 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $98,000 after buying an additional 3,296 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $157,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $166,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded 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.