StockNews.com Lowers Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) to Sell

StockNews.com cut shares of Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Thursday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on HBNC. Hovde Group initiated coverage on shares of Horizon Bancorp in a research report on Monday, September 30th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Horizon Bancorp from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Horizon Bancorp from $14.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.00.

Horizon Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of Horizon Bancorp stock opened at $15.91 on Thursday. Horizon Bancorp has a 1-year low of $9.22 and a 1-year high of $16.64. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $15.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $13.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $701.89 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.46 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02.

Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.04. Horizon Bancorp had a net margin of 5.50% and a return on equity of 8.17%. The company had revenue of $102.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $58.23 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.37 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Horizon Bancorp will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Horizon Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.02%. Horizon Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 118.52%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Horizon Bancorp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of HBNC. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in Horizon Bancorp by 46.7% in the first quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 15,523 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $185,000 after purchasing an additional 4,943 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Horizon Bancorp by 88,223.7% in the first quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 67,126 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 67,050 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in Horizon Bancorp by 23.4% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 28,977 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $372,000 after purchasing an additional 5,496 shares during the period. PL Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Horizon Bancorp by 6.8% in the first quarter. PL Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,623,174 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,825,000 after purchasing an additional 103,084 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in Horizon Bancorp by 6.7% in the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 557,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,151,000 after purchasing an additional 34,958 shares during the period. 64.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Horizon Bancorp

Horizon Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Horizon Bank that engages in the provision of commercial and retail banking services. The company offers checking, saving, money market, certificate of deposits, individual retirement accounts, and time deposits, as well as non-interest- and interest-bearing demand deposits.