StockNews.com Initiates Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) Coverage

Research analysts at StockNews.com have begun coverage on the stock Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF – Get Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Friday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the bank’s stock.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $51.00 to $54.00 in a a report on Friday, May 31. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Heartland Financial USA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.60, based on data from MarketBeat.

Get the latest research report on Heartland Financial USA

Heartland Financial USA price performance

Shares of NASDAQ:HTLF opened at $56.59 on Friday. Heartland Financial USA has a 12-month low of $26.44 and a 12-month high of $56.75. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.09 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.77, and a quick ratio of 0.75. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $52.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.60.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF – Get Your Free Report ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The bank reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $188.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $183.19 million. Heartland Financial USA had a return on equity of 11.11% and a net margin of 7.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% year over year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders place their bets

In other Heartland Financial USA news, EVP Lo B. Nestman sold 4,389 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.14, for a total transaction of $220,064.46. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available via this hyperlink. 1.80% of shares are currently owned by insiders.

Heartland Financial USA Institutional Trading

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HTLF. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the second quarter valued at about $46,626,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 2,309.0% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 710,923 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $31,601,000 after acquiring an additional 681,412 shares in the last quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 506.3% in the first quarter. Stieven Capital Advisors LP now owns 394,095 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $13,852,000 after acquiring an additional 329,095 shares in the last quarter. Slotnik Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the second quarter valued at about $13,714,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Heartland Financial USA during the fourth quarter valued at about $11,502,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.55% of the company’s shares.

About Heartland Financial USA

(Get a free report)

Heartland Financial USA, Inc, a bank holding company, provides commercial, small business and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The Company accepts various deposit products, including checking, demand deposit accounts, NOW accounts, savings, money market and individual pension; deposit certificates; and other term deposits.

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