MQS Management LLC Takes $546,000 Position in Hilltop Holdings Inc. $HTH

MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 16,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $546,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of HTH. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 236.4% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 461,206 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,044,000 after acquiring an additional 324,108 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 106.9% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 493,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,503,000 after acquiring an additional 255,141 shares during the last quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Hilltop during the third quarter valued at about $8,337,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 37.5% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 711,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $23,788,000 after acquiring an additional 194,287 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 32.0% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 796,277 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,247,000 after acquiring an additional 192,991 shares during the last quarter. 57.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hilltop news, Director Rhodes R. Bobbitt sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.25, for a total value of $372,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 117,016 shares in the company, valued at $4,358,846. This trade represents a 7.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Keith E. Bornemann sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.00, for a total transaction of $76,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 7,912 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $300,656. This trade represents a 20.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 271,771 shares of company stock worth $10,314,603 over the last three months. Company insiders own 29.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HTH has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Hilltop from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Hilltop from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Zacks Research raised shares of Hilltop from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Hilltop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.50.

Hilltop Price Performance

Shares of HTH opened at $37.23 on Friday. Hilltop Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $28.92 and a one year high of $40.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.18 billion, a PE ratio of 14.10 and a beta of 0.89.

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.10. Hilltop had a net margin of 10.13% and a return on equity of 7.32%. The business had revenue of $300.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $304.87 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Hilltop Holdings Inc. will post 2.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hilltop Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 8th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Hilltop’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.30%.

Hilltop Company Profile

Hilltop Holdings, Inc (NYSE: HTH) is a Dallas, Texas–based financial holding company offering commercial banking, mortgage lending and capital markets services through its three primary subsidiaries: PlainsCapital Corporation, PrimeLending and HilltopSecurities. PlainsCapital provides deposit, lending and treasury management solutions to small and mid-sized businesses, professionals and individuals. PrimeLending specializes in home purchase and refinance loans, serving retail, wholesale and correspondent channels.