Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stake in Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its position in shares of Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 183,968 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,002 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Heritage Financial were worth $4,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HFWA. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 60.7% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 15,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $341,000 after purchasing an additional 6,010 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 29,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $578,000 after buying an additional 1,471 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 70.5% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 112,443 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,180,000 after buying an additional 46,511 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 133.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 786 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 61.2% in the 2nd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,930 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $323,000 after acquiring an additional 6,807 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Heritage Financial

In related news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total value of $78,837.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $533,153.50. This represents a 12.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HFWA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Stephens increased their price target on Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

Heritage Financial Trading Up 1.2 %

HFWA opened at $25.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $23.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $20.90. Heritage Financial Co. has a one year low of $16.55 and a one year high of $27.55. The stock has a market cap of $880.73 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.88 and a beta of 0.52.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $81.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.17 million. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.01% and a net margin of 12.27%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Heritage Financial Co. will post 1.65 EPS for the current year.

Heritage Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.57%. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 85.19%.

Heritage Financial 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.