Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

Stock analysts at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) in a report issued on Wednesday. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the bank’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on HTLF. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Heartland Financial USA from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $51.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Heartland Financial USA from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.60.

Heartland Financial USA Stock Performance

HTLF opened at $43.89 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $43.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.98. The company has a market capitalization of $1.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.44 and a beta of 0.97. Heartland Financial USA has a 1 year low of $26.44 and a 1 year high of $45.99.

Heartland Financial USA (NASDAQ:HTLF) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The bank reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $279.39 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $182.73 million. Heartland Financial USA had a return on equity of 11.33% and a net margin of 8.17%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Heartland Financial USA will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert B. Engel sold 7,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.26, for a total transaction of $191,976.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,000 shares in the company, valued at $429,420. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Robert B. Engel sold 7,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.26, for a total transaction of $191,976.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,000 shares in the company, valued at $429,420. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert B. Engel sold 5,928 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.20, for a total value of $149,385.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $277,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,529 shares of company stock valued at $341,387 over the last 90 days. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Heartland Financial USA

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 0.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,244,151 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $114,032,000 after buying an additional 11,207 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,043,545 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $76,860,000 after buying an additional 62,177 shares during the period. HTLF Bank bought a new stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,623,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Heartland Financial USA by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 478,927 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $18,012,000 after buying an additional 32,044 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in Heartland Financial USA by 23.3% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 435,990 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,831,000 after purchasing an additional 82,514 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 71.55% of the company’s stock.

About Heartland Financial USA

Heartland Financial USA, Inc, a bank holding company, provides commercial, small business, and consumer banking services to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including checking, demand deposit accounts, NOW accounts, savings, money market, and individual retirement; certificates of deposit; and other time deposits.