Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 565,900 shares, a decrease of 17.2% from the September 15th total of 683,300 shares. Approximately 1.3% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 168,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Horizon Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HBNC. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in shares of Horizon Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $432,000. Foundry Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 67.6% in the 2nd quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 124,360 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,538,000 after purchasing an additional 50,143 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 16.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 12,347 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $159,000 after purchasing an additional 1,749 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 88,223.7% during the 1st quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 67,126 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 67,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 46.7% during the first quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $199,000 after purchasing an additional 4,943 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.51% of the company’s stock.

Horizon Bancorp Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of HBNC opened at $15.62 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $689.09 million, a PE ratio of 28.93 and a beta of 1.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.58. Horizon Bancorp has a 1 year low of $9.22 and a 1 year high of $16.64.

Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.01. Horizon Bancorp had a net margin of 5.50% and a return on equity of 8.17%. The company had revenue of $97.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.03 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. Analysts forecast that Horizon Bancorp will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Horizon Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.10%. Horizon Bancorp’s payout ratio is 118.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on HBNC. Hovde Group started coverage on shares of Horizon Bancorp in a research report on Monday, September 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Horizon Bancorp from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Horizon Bancorp from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Horizon Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Horizon Bancorp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.00.

About Horizon Bancorp

Horizon Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Horizon Bank that engages in the provision of commercial and retail banking services. The company offers checking, saving, money market, certificate of deposits, individual retirement accounts, and time deposits, as well as non-interest- and interest-bearing demand deposits.