Envestnet Asset Management Inc. has recently increased the number of shares it holds in Heartland Financial USA, Inc. According to a 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Envestnet Asset Management now owns about 0.20% worth $3,962,000 of Heartland Financial USA’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,086 shares during the fourth quarter, raising their stake to 6.4%.
Heartland Financial USA is currently based in Dubuque, Iowa and stands as one of the leading financial institutions throughout both the United States and Canada. However,the bank recently posted earnings results on April 24th that fell short of analysts’ expectations by $0.13 per share resulting in a lower target price for the company from DA Davidson research analysts.
Despite this setback, Heartland Financial USA’s revenue growth for this quarter has exceeded analyst estimates thus signifying hope that there will be further developments within the bank sector making an impact in succeeding quarters.. The earnings report mentioned that they earned $1.19 EPS for Q1 FY23 with a net margin of 25.38% and similar sales amounts making it around $246.98 million dollars which significantly surpasses market expectation of just $191.42 million dollars.
Over several months there have been significant changes at Heartland Financial which helped propel its stocks upwards before reaching its peak late last year.Though after changes in marketspost Covid-19 hitting early last year affected business profiles globally including banking institutions such as Heartland.Based on expert analyses and stock projections from industry leaders like Piper Sandler and TheStreet ,Heartland Financial USA may suffer downside risk particularly if its stocks continue to underperform.However this happens I believe with adequate repositioning there’s still room for her stocks to grow along with economic revitalization plans by policy makers seeking ways to juice up economic functions.. It seems things are looking bright again for Heartland Financial and the general economic outlook so it will be interesting to observe factors working together in coming quarters to present a clearer market analysis of Heartland’s trajectory.
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Institutional Investors and Hedge Funds Show Interest in Heartland Financial USA, Despite Bearish Analyst Evaluations
Heartland Financial USA, Inc. has attracted the attention of several institutional investors and hedge funds in recent times. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in Heartland Financial USA worth $26,000 during the first quarter, while Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC and Affiance Financial LLC acquired new stakes worth $31,000 and $41,000 respectively during the third and fourth quarters of 2022. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can joined this list by acquiring a new position worth $93,000 in the third quarter as well. Finally, High Note Wealth LLC invested $202,000 to acquire a new position in Heartland Financial USA during the third quarter. As it stands at present day May 16, 2023, institutional investors and hedge funds now own 62.33% of the company’s stock.
Despite these purchases from institutional investors and hedge funds however, Heartland Financial USA recently announced a quarterly dividend payable on Friday, May 26th to stockholders of record on Friday, May 12th amounting to $0.30 per share with an annualized dividend yield of 4.43%. It is interesting that this announcement comes despite research analysts evaluations on HTLF shares which appears bearish with some cutting their target prices on shares of Heartland Financial USA from $41 to $38 in recent weeks.
Moreover, company Director Robert B Engel seems bullish about investing in Heartland Financial USA as we can see traces of his activity over the last few months based on recent filings from the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). According to public records, Engel bought 4,002 shares at an average price of $25.25 per share valued at approximately $101k on Thursday March 9th followed by an acquisition of another 4,291 shares at an average cost of $23.59 per share valued at approximately $101k made on Monday March 13th. Post these acquisitions, Engel now directly owns 23,000 shares in the company valued at approximately $542,570.
Heartland’s stocks currently stand at $27.11 as of market opening on Tuesday, May 16th with a market cap of $1.15 billion and PE ratio of 5.41 while carrying a beta score of 1.04 which makes it slightly higher than the average beta score of other household electronics companies or financial firms. It is important to note that stock prices have ranged between $26.10 and $51.60 over the past year with the stock currently trading below its moving averages for both 50 and 200-day periods at $35.85 and $43.80 respectively.
In light of this data from institutional investments and corporate insiders’ buying activity documents, one cannot definitively say what direction Heartland Financial USA will move next but paying attention to developments in relation to this publicly-traded firm is worth taking a closer look as events continue to unfold over time.
