HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT) Board Initiates Share Repurchase Program

HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT) announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, December 18th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $15.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 2.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

HBT Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HBT traded down $0.82 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $22.24. The company had a trading volume of 79,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,258. HBT Financial has a 12 month low of $17.75 and a 12 month high of $25.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $701.87 million, a P/E ratio of 10.11 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.90.

HBT Financial (NASDAQ:HBT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $56.44 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $57.05 million. HBT Financial had a net margin of 24.68% and a return on equity of 14.70%. As a group, analysts anticipate that HBT Financial will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

HBT Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 4th were given a $0.19 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.42%. HBT Financial’s payout ratio is 34.55%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on HBT Financial from $25.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. DA Davidson downgraded HBT Financial from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $26.00 to $24.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on HBT Financial from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.40.

Insider Transactions at HBT Financial

In other HBT Financial news, Chairman Fred L. Drake sold 4,798 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.92, for a total transaction of $114,768.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 86,672 shares in the company, valued at $2,073,194.24. This trade represents a 5.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 14,498 shares of company stock valued at $351,985 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 59.80% of the company’s stock.

HBT Financial Company Profile

HBT Financial, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Heartland Bank and Trust Company that provides business, commercial, and retail banking products and services to individuals, businesses, and municipal entities in Central and Northeastern Illinois, and Eastern Iowa. The company's deposits accounts consist of noninterest-bearing demand deposits, interest-bearing transaction accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposits, health savings accounts, and individual retirement accounts.