Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) to Issue Dividend Increase – $0.18 Per Share

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 13th. This is an increase from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Hilltop has increased its dividend by an average of 12.3% annually over the last three years. Hilltop has a payout ratio of 40.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Hilltop to earn $1.48 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.9%.

Hilltop Trading Up 1.1 %

HTH traded up $0.33 on Friday, reaching $30.13. The stock had a trading volume of 895,831 shares, compared to its average volume of 389,602. Hilltop has a 12-month low of $26.67 and a 12-month high of $35.32. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $29.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.23. The company has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.48 and a beta of 1.15.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.27. Hilltop had a net margin of 6.65% and a return on equity of 4.90%. As a group, analysts predict that Hilltop will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 30,851 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.61, for a total transaction of $1,006,051.11. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 77,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,535,362.28. This represents a 28.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,124 shares in the company, valued at approximately $291,968. The trade was a 21.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 29.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on HTH. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Raymond James lowered shares of Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Hilltop from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.50.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings Inc provides business and consumer banking services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Broker-Dealer, and Mortgage Origination. The Banking segment offers savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; lines and letters of credit, home improvement and equity loans, loans for purchasing and carrying securities, term, agricultural and commercial real estate, equipment loans, and other lending products; and mortgage, commercial and industrial loans, and term and construction finance.