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

Heartland Financial USA, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTLF) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $45.60.

HTLF has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Heartland Financial USA in a research report on Saturday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $51.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st.

Heartland Financial USA Stock Down 1.9 %

HTLF opened at $56.39 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $44.87. Heartland Financial USA has a 52 week low of $26.44 and a 52 week high of $59.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a PE ratio of 33.97 and a beta of 0.95.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The bank reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $188.92 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heartland Financial USA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.13%. Heartland Financial USA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 72.29%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Lo B. Nestman sold 4,389 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.14, for a total transaction of $220,064.46. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Financial USA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HTLF. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Heartland Financial USA in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Clarity Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA during the second quarter worth about $83,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 37,550.0% in the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 2,259 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 2,253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 695.2% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,807 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 2,454 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.55% of the company’s stock.

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.