US Bancorp DE Cuts Stock Position in Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA)

US Bancorp DE reduced its stake in shares of Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA - Free Report) by 18.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 166,176 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 36,500 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE owned approximately 0.48% of Heritage Financial worth $3,618,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in HFWA. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new position in Heritage Financial during the 1st quarter valued at $14,612,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Heritage Financial by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,934,852 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $34,884,000 after purchasing an additional 80,044 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new position in Heritage Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $951,000. Boston Partners increased its position in Heritage Financial by 70.5% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 112,443 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,180,000 after purchasing an additional 46,511 shares during the period. Finally, Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in Heritage Financial during the 2nd quarter valued at $557,000. 78.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on HFWA shares. Stephens upped their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Heritage Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $25.00.

Heritage Financial Stock Up 2.9 %

HFWA stock traded up $0.68 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $23.91. 321,301 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 182,492. Heritage Financial Co. has a 1 year low of $16.38 and a 1 year high of $23.94. The firm's 50 day moving average is $22.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $20.22. The stock has a market cap of $824.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.51 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.42 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $81.65 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $58.17 million. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.51 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial Co. will post 1.62 EPS for the current year.

Heritage Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. Heritage Financial's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.19%.

About Heritage Financial

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.