Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Announces $0.17 Quarterly Dividend

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, NASDAQ reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.17 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 24th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th.

Hilltop has raised its dividend payment by an average of 21.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 7 consecutive years. Hilltop has a dividend payout ratio of 36.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Hilltop to earn $1.80 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 37.8%.

Hilltop Price Performance

NYSE HTH traded up $0.95 on Friday, reaching $30.00. The company had a trading volume of 605,305 shares, compared to its average volume of 311,891. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20 and a beta of 1.12. Hilltop has a 1 year low of $26.78 and a 1 year high of $35.66. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $30.56 and a 200-day moving average of $30.94.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The financial services provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $285.24 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $274.55 million. Hilltop had a return on equity of 5.20% and a net margin of 7.00%. Hilltop’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hilltop will post 1.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hilltop news, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.83, for a total value of $924,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 98,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,050,135.22. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, Director Hill A. Feinberg sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.63, for a total transaction of $94,890.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,776 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $435,734.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.83, for a total value of $924,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 98,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,050,135.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 28.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hilltop by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,551,143 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $192,605,000 after purchasing an additional 109,157 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Hilltop by 8.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,571,566 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $105,004,000 after purchasing an additional 291,456 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hilltop by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,567,251 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $46,077,000 after purchasing an additional 8,634 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Hilltop by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 904,157 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,826,000 after purchasing an additional 25,268 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Hilltop by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 900,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,460,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HTH has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James upgraded Hilltop from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 5th. TheStreet cut Hilltop from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 13th.

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.