28,540 Shares of Hilltop Holdings Inc. $HTH Bought by Ellsworth Advisors LLC

Ellsworth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 28,540 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Hilltop in the second quarter valued at $256,179,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Hilltop by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,546,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $98,769,000 after purchasing an additional 24,912 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Hilltop by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 413,928 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,049,000 after acquiring an additional 12,100 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Hilltop during the 2nd quarter worth $13,091,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Hilltop by 39.8% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 286,079 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,247,000 after buying an additional 81,448 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hilltop

In related news, Director Rhodes Bobbitt sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.80, for a total transaction of $194,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 25,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $994,870.80. This trade represents a 16.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 52,555 shares of company stock worth $2,087,714 in the last three months. 5.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hilltop Trading Up 1.3%

HTH stock opened at $36.74 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.61 and a beta of 0.89. Hilltop Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $30.78 and a twelve month high of $40.41. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.02.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $315.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $306.18 million. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.17% and a return on equity of 7.40%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.57 EPS. Research analysts predict that Hilltop Holdings Inc. will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hilltop Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 7th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. This is a positive change from Hilltop’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 7th. Hilltop’s payout ratio is currently 32.59%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Hilltop from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research cut Hilltop from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $42.00 price target on shares of Hilltop in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Hilltop from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Finally, Raymond James Financial downgraded shares of Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings Inc is a Dallas, Texas-based financial services holding company that provides banking, mortgage lending and securities services through its subsidiaries. The company primarily serves individuals, businesses, government entities and institutional clients, with operations focused largely on the United States and particularly the Texas market.

PlainsCapital Bank, Hilltop’s banking subsidiary, offers commercial and consumer banking products, including loans, deposit accounts, treasury management and other financial services.