Sterling Capital Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 33.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 119,002 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,509 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Huntington Bancshares were worth $1,936,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of HBAN. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 59,799 shares of the bank’s stock worth $879,000 after acquiring an additional 6,578 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 286.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 474,752 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,979,000 after purchasing an additional 351,850 shares during the last quarter. Arvest Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Huntington Bancshares in the third quarter worth about $2,381,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares during the third quarter valued at about $1,389,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,797,771 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,901,000 after buying an additional 55,602 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup reduced their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $18.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $18.50 to $16.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut 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. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. One investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.94.

Huntington Bancshares Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HBAN opened at $12.89 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The company has a 50-day moving average of $15.21 and a 200 day moving average of $16.06. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 12-month low of $11.92 and a 12-month high of $18.45. The stock has a market cap of $18.83 billion, a PE ratio of 10.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.89.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 in the previous year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were given a dividend of $0.155 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.81%. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is 50.41%.

Insider Activity at Huntington Bancshares

In related news, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 38,451 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total value of $552,925.38. Following 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Brendan A. Lawlor sold 3,521 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.25, for a total value of $53,695.25. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 47,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $731,237.50. This trade represents a 6.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 111,781 shares of company stock valued at $1,631,151. 0.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Huntington Bancshares 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.