Short Interest in Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) Declines By 7.8%

Horizon Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBNC) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 726,900 shares, a decline of 7.8% from the March 15th total of 788,100 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 161,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Horizon Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Harbour Trust & Investment Management Co bought a new stake in Horizon Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at $6,167,000. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 2.2% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 96,950 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. 1ST Source Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 2.7% during the third quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 69,533 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $743,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Horizon Bancorp by 1.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,183,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,325,000 after purchasing an additional 34,861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Horizon Bancorp by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 634,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,780,000 after purchasing an additional 44,810 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.51% of the company’s stock.

Horizon Bancorp Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of HBNC stock traded up $0.10 on Wednesday, hitting $11.50. 44,439 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 158,434. The stock has a market capitalization of $507.27 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.81 and a beta of 1.02. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.04. Horizon Bancorp has a one year low of $7.69 and a one year high of $14.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Horizon Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBNC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $21.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.50 million. Horizon Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.42% and a net margin of 8.63%. Equities analysts forecast that Horizon Bancorp will post 1.33 EPS for the current year.

Horizon Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.57%. Horizon Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered Horizon Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.00.

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.