Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Short Interest Update

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 400,600 shares, an increase of 8.9% from the October 31st total of 367,700 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 172,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HFWA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stephens upped their price target on Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.00.

Heritage Financial Price Performance

Shares of Heritage Financial stock opened at $26.11 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $891.66 million, a P/E ratio of 24.18 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $21.31. Heritage Financial has a 12 month low of $16.55 and a 12 month high of $27.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.09). Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. The firm had revenue of $81.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.17 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Heritage Financial will post 1.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.52%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is presently 85.19%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total transaction of $78,837.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $533,153.50. The trade was a 12.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Heritage Financial

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 70.5% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 112,443 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,180,000 after purchasing an additional 46,511 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Heritage Financial by 4.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,934,852 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,884,000 after buying an additional 80,044 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Heritage Financial by 71.4% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,741,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,903,000 after buying an additional 725,257 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Heritage Financial by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 601 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

About Heritage Financial

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.