Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Research analysts at StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) in a note issued to investors on Tuesday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the bank’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Heartland Financial USA from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $51.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.60.

Heartland Financial USA Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Heartland Financial USA stock opened at $43.19 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.67. Heartland Financial USA has a 1 year low of $26.44 and a 1 year high of $45.99. The company has a market capitalization of $1.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.02 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The bank reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.08. Heartland Financial USA had a return on equity of 11.33% and a net margin of 8.17%. The business had revenue of $279.39 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $182.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.22 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Heartland Financial USA

In other Heartland Financial USA news, Director Robert B. Engel sold 7,600 shares of Heartland Financial USA stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.26, for a total value of $191,976.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 17,000 shares in the company, valued at $429,420. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Robert B. Engel sold 5,928 shares of Heartland Financial USA stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.20, for a total transaction of $149,385.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $277,200. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert B. Engel sold 7,600 shares of Heartland Financial USA stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.26, for a total value of $191,976.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,000 shares in the company, valued at $429,420. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,529 shares of company stock worth $341,387 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Heartland Financial USA

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HTLF. OLD National Bancorp IN acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,009,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 478,927 shares of the bank’s stock worth $18,012,000 after acquiring an additional 32,044 shares during the period. HTLF Bank acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the fourth quarter worth approximately $55,623,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the fourth quarter worth approximately $11,502,000. Finally, EJF Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the third quarter worth approximately $1,299,000. 71.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.