Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, January 31st,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 13th. This is a positive change 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. Equities analysts expect Hilltop to earn $1.48 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 45.9%.

Hilltop Stock Up 1.1 %

HTH stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $30.13. The company had a trading volume of 895,831 shares, compared to its average volume of 389,602. The company has a market capitalization of $1.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48 and a beta of 1.15. Hilltop has a 12-month low of $26.67 and a 12-month high of $35.32. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $29.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $31.23.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.27. Hilltop had a net margin of 6.65% and a return on equity of 4.90%. As a group, analysts expect that Hilltop will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Martin Bradley Winges sold 30,851 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.61, for a total value of $1,006,051.11. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 77,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,535,362.28. This represents a 28.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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 the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.00, for a total transaction of $80,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,124 shares in the company, valued at $291,968. This trade represents a 21.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 29.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HTH has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Raymond James cut shares of Hilltop from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Hilltop from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and three have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hilltop has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.50.

About Hilltop

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.