Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the four ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.50.

Several brokerages have commented on HFWA. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Heritage Financial from $23.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Heritage Financial in the fourth quarter worth $1,602,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Heritage Financial by 72.6% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,394 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 1,428 shares during the period. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Heritage Financial during the 1st quarter valued at about $216,000. Kiley Juergens Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Kiley Juergens Wealth Management LLC now owns 239,596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,646,000 after purchasing an additional 1,741 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Heritage Financial by 10.1% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 200,324 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,884,000 after purchasing an additional 18,434 shares during the period. 78.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Heritage Financial Price Performance

NASDAQ HFWA opened at $21.83 on Friday. Heritage Financial has a 12 month low of $15.50 and a 12 month high of $23.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $753.14 million, a PE ratio of 17.33 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The financial services provider reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $56.36 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $58.27 million. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.95% and a net margin of 14.59%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Heritage Financial will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.21%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is presently 73.02%.

Heritage Financial Company Profile

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.