Prudential Financial Inc. Purchases 38,816 Shares of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN)

Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,216,233 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 38,816 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Huntington Bancshares were worth $19,788,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Huntington Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth approximately $166,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the fourth quarter worth $8,035,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 665,682 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $10,831,000 after purchasing an additional 11,492 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its holdings in Huntington Bancshares by 46.2% in the 4th quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 137,694 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,240,000 after purchasing an additional 43,511 shares during the period. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in Huntington Bancshares in the 4th quarter worth $98,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on HBAN. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Huntington Bancshares from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.18.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Scott D. Kleinman sold 69,088 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.67, for a total transaction of $1,013,520.96. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 453,129 shares in the company, valued at $6,647,402.43. The trade was a 13.23 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 38,451 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.38, for a total transaction of $552,925.38. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 335,538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,825,036.44. This trade represents a 10.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 111,060 shares of company stock valued at $1,620,142 over the last three months. 0.89% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ HBAN opened at $15.26 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a one year low of $12.05 and a one year high of $18.45. The firm has a market cap of $22.29 billion, a PE ratio of 12.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.07.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The bank reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 11.23% and a net margin of 16.23%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Huntington Bancshares Incorporated will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be given a dividend of $0.155 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.06%. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is 50.41%.

About Huntington Bancshares

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services.