Brokerages Set Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) Target Price at $45.60

Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $45.60.

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on Heartland Financial USA in a research note on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock.

Heartland Financial USA Price Performance

HTLF stock opened at $65.58 on Friday. Heartland Financial USA has a 1 year low of $29.67 and a 1 year high of $69.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.64 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.40.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The bank reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17. Heartland Financial USA had a return on equity of 10.81% and a net margin of 8.79%. The company had revenue of $272.79 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.12 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Financial USA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.83%. Heartland Financial USA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director John K. Schmidt sold 22,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.32, for a total transaction of $1,537,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 60,541 shares in the company, valued at $4,136,161.12. The trade was a 27.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HTLF. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 65.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 84,767 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,807,000 after buying an additional 33,533 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its stake in Heartland Financial USA by 128.0% during the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 11,541 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $654,000 after acquiring an additional 6,479 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in Heartland Financial USA by 33.1% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 27,999 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,588,000 after acquiring an additional 6,960 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Heartland Financial USA during the 3rd quarter worth $225,000. Finally, Slotnik Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter. Slotnik Capital LLC now owns 353,534 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,045,000 after acquiring an additional 45,000 shares in the last quarter. 71.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Heartland Financial USA

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 retirement; certificates of deposit; and other time deposits.