Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Raises Dividend to $0.18 Per Share

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 13th. This is an increase from Hilltop's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Hilltop has increased its dividend by an average of 12.3% annually over the last three years. Hilltop has a payout ratio of 40.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Hilltop to earn $1.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 39.8%.

Hilltop Price Performance

HTH traded up $0.89 on Tuesday, hitting $30.92. The company had a trading volume of 589,217 shares, compared to its average volume of 410,160. Hilltop has a 1-year low of $26.67 and a 1-year high of $35.32. The company's fifty day moving average price is $29.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.11. The stock has a market cap of $2.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.77 and a beta of 1.14.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.27. Hilltop had a net margin of 7.04% and a return on equity of 5.18%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Hilltop will post 1.48 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Hilltop

In related news, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 30,851 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.61, for a total value of $1,006,051.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 77,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,535,362.28. This represents a 28.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,500 shares of Hilltop stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 9,124 shares in the company, valued at $291,968. This represents a 21.51 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 29.30% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HTH. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Hilltop from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Raymond James lowered Hilltop from a "market perform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Hilltop from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $34.00.

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.