Rhumbline Advisers Decreases Position in Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH)

Rhumbline Advisers lowered its stake in shares of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 155,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,115 shares during the quarter. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.24% of Hilltop worth $4,849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 7.4% in the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 315,185 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,872,000 after acquiring an additional 21,771 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Hilltop by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,239,587 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $184,486,000 after purchasing an additional 105,716 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Hilltop in the first quarter worth about $1,230,000. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Hilltop during the first quarter valued at approximately $520,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Hilltop during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,080,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hilltop news, Director Hill A. Feinberg sold 17,157 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.99, for a total transaction of $566,009.43. Following the sale, the director now owns 544,979 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,978,857.21. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 28.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HTH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens boosted their price objective on Hilltop from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Hilltop from $33.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.50.

Hilltop Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of HTH stock opened at $32.33 on Monday. Hilltop Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $26.78 and a twelve month high of $35.66. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.91 and a beta of 1.13.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $297.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $283.22 million. Hilltop had a net margin of 7.10% and a return on equity of 5.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.28 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Hilltop Holdings Inc. will post 1.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hilltop Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.10%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 16th. Hilltop’s payout ratio is 39.77%.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings Inc provides business and consumer banking services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Broker-Dealer, and Mortgage Origination. The Banking segment offers savings, checking, interest-bearing checking, and money market accounts; certificates of deposit; lines and letters of credit, home improvement and equity loans, loans for purchasing and carrying securities, term, agricultural and commercial real estate, equipment loans, and other lending products; and mortgage, commercial and industrial loans, and term and construction finance.