Piper Sandler Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) Stock

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) had its price target lifted by Piper Sandler from $27.00 to $28.00 in a report published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $25.00.

Heritage Financial Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Heritage Financial stock opened at $22.99 on Monday. Heritage Financial has a 1 year low of $15.94 and a 1 year high of $23.82. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $20.08. The company has a market cap of $793.06 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.29 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $81.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.17 million. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.95% and a net margin of 14.59%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Heritage Financial will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.00%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is currently 85.19%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jennison Associates LLC bought a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $14,612,000. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in Heritage Financial by 212.4% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 206,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,009,000 after acquiring an additional 140,592 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 70.5% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 112,443 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,180,000 after acquiring an additional 46,511 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Heritage Financial by 4.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 80,044 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

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.