Hilltop Holdings Inc. (HTH) Raised to Buy at Compass Point

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) was upgraded by research analysts at Compass Point from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, August 1st, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $30.50 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock. Compass Point’s target price indicates a potential upside of 24.34% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on HTH. BidaskClub upgraded Hilltop Holdings from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 10th. Zacks Investment Research lowered Hilltop Holdings from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 10th. Stephens set a $31.00 price target on Hilltop Holdings and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 28th. Piper Jaffray Companies lowered Hilltop Holdings from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $30.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, May 10th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded Hilltop Holdings from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.08.

Shares of Hilltop Holdings (HTH) opened at 24.53 on Tuesday. Hilltop Holdings has a 12 month low of $21.04 and a 12 month high of $30.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.73 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $25.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.70.

Hilltop Holdings (NYSE:HTH) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $460.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $431.80 million. Hilltop Holdings had a return on equity of 9.39% and a net margin of 10.02%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Hilltop Holdings will post $1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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In other news, insider Jerry Schaffner sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.14, for a total value of $188,550.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Charles Clifton Robinson bought 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 31st. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $24.97 per share, with a total value of $499,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,255,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,337,949.28. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 236,889 shares of company stock worth $6,112,076. 22.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HTH. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Hilltop Holdings by 93.2% in the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 3,648 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,000 after buying an additional 1,760 shares during the period. First Interstate Bank raised its position in Hilltop Holdings by 50.1% in the first quarter. First Interstate Bank now owns 3,895 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $107,000 after buying an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Founders Capital Management bought a new position in Hilltop Holdings during the first quarter valued at $118,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Hilltop Holdings by 32.9% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $155,000 after buying an additional 1,398 shares during the period. Finally, Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. bought a new position in Hilltop Holdings during the first quarter valued at $178,000. Institutional investors own 57.04% of the company’s stock.

About Hilltop Holdings

Hilltop Holdings Inc is a financial holding Company. The Company provides business and consumer banking services from offices located throughout Texas through PlainsCapital Bank (the Bank). It has three operating business units, which include PlainsCapital Corporation (PCC) (banking and mortgage origination), Hilltop Securities Holdings LLC (Securities Holdings) (broker-dealer) and PlainsCapital Company (NLC) (insurance).