Brokerages Set Heritage Commerce Corp (NASDAQ:HTBK) Price Target at $12.25

Heritage Commerce Corp (NASDAQ:HTBK) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $12.25.

HTBK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Heritage Commerce from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 20th. Stephens increased their target price on shares of Heritage Commerce from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 27th. Janney Montgomery Scott cut shares of Heritage Commerce from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $12.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Zacks Research raised Heritage Commerce from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $14.50 target price (up from $12.50) on shares of Heritage Commerce in a research report on Thursday, December 18th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HTBK. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Heritage Commerce by 11.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,946,682 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,191,000 after purchasing an additional 390,978 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Heritage Commerce by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,883,705 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,705,000 after purchasing an additional 44,948 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Heritage Commerce by 52.1% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,676,777 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,636,000 after buying an additional 574,070 shares in the last quarter. HoldCo Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Heritage Commerce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $16,121,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Heritage Commerce by 5.9% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,565,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $15,544,000 after buying an additional 87,229 shares in the last quarter. 75.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Heritage Commerce Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of HTBK opened at $12.01 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $735.97 million, a PE ratio of 17.16 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Heritage Commerce has a 52-week low of $8.09 and a 52-week high of $12.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $11.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.39.

Heritage Commerce (NASDAQ:HTBK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $50.01 million for the quarter. Heritage Commerce had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 16.31%. Research analysts forecast that Heritage Commerce will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Commerce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 6th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 6th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. Heritage Commerce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.29%.

About Heritage Commerce

Heritage Commerce Corporation, headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan, is the bank holding company for Heritage Bank, N.A., a community-oriented financial institution. Traded on NASDAQ under the symbol HTBK, the company focuses on delivering tailored banking services to businesses, professionals and individuals throughout Southeastern Michigan.

Heritage Bank, N.A. offers a comprehensive portfolio of deposit and lending products designed to meet the needs of commercial and consumer clients.