Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 1,779,730 Shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 1.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 170,021,039 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,779,730 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.73% of Huntington Bancshares worth $2,371,793,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 8.6% in the first quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 136,961 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,911,000 after acquiring an additional 10,795 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 39.1% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,534,897 shares of the bank’s stock worth $83,124,000 after acquiring an additional 1,838,019 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 715.0% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 4,251,631 shares of the bank’s stock worth $54,081,000 after acquiring an additional 3,729,974 shares during the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 160.0% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 206,193 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,623,000 after acquiring an additional 126,900 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Huntington Bancshares by 43.4% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 4,530 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 1,371 shares during the last quarter. 80.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HBAN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Bank of America raised Huntington Bancshares from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com cut Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 19th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $15.00 target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $14.93.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HBAN traded up $0.56 during trading on Friday, hitting $14.86. The company had a trading volume of 29,332,491 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,216,596. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a 12 month low of $9.25 and a 12 month high of $14.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.89 and a beta of 1.06.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last issued its earnings results on Friday, July 19th. The bank reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.99% and a net margin of 15.86%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.155 per share. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.86%.

Insider Activity at Huntington Bancshares

In related news, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 30,000 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.66, for a total transaction of $409,800.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 305,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,178,375.44. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Huntington Bancshares news, VP Brantley J. Standridge sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.60, for a total transaction of $680,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 385,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,241,562.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.66, for a total value of $409,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 305,884 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,178,375.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 157,829 shares of company stock valued at $2,148,623. 0.89% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Huntington Bancshares Profile

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services.