Verition Fund Management LLC Has $352,000 Holdings in Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA)

Verition Fund Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,171 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,242 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Heritage Financial were worth $352,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of HFWA. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,934,852 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,884,000 after acquiring an additional 80,044 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its position in Heritage Financial by 71.4% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,741,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,903,000 after purchasing an additional 725,257 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Heritage Financial by 43.7% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Nwam LLC bought a new position in shares of Heritage Financial in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,194,000. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the second quarter worth $27,000. 78.30% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Heritage Financial Price Performance

Shares of Heritage Financial stock opened at $26.17 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $24.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $21.74. Heritage Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $16.55 and a fifty-two week high of $27.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $893.81 million, a PE ratio of 24.23 and a beta of 0.55.

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). Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The company had revenue of $81.65 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. Analysts expect that Heritage Financial Co. will post 1.65 EPS for the current year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors 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 dividend yield of 3.52%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is 85.19%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HFWA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Stephens raised their price target on Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total value of $78,837.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $533,153.50. This represents a 12.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Heritage Financial

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.