Royce & Associates LP Cuts Stock Holdings in Heritage Financial Corporation $HFWA

Royce & Associates LP lowered its position in shares of Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) by 25.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 126,639 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 42,375 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP owned approximately 0.37% of Heritage Financial worth $2,995,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 316.9% during the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 1,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 1,255 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 27,871.4% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,958 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 99.1% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after acquiring an additional 1,431 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,171 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $122,000 after acquiring an additional 891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 8,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $195,000 after acquiring an additional 592 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Heritage Financial Stock Performance

Shares of HFWA stock opened at $27.25 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $26.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $25.75. Heritage Financial Corporation has a 52 week low of $21.32 and a 52 week high of $28.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a PE ratio of 13.36 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by $0.02. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 20.50% and a return on equity of 8.71%. The firm had revenue of $77.92 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $80.31 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Heritage Financial Corporation will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 6th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is currently 47.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on HFWA. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Heritage Financial from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Heritage Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Heritage Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Heritage Financial from $34.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Heritage Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.50.

Heritage Financial Profile

Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) is a bank holding company headquartered in Spokane, Washington. Through its primary subsidiary, Heritage Bank, the company provides a comprehensive range of banking and financial services to both individual and commercial clients. Heritage Bank’s offerings encompass deposit products, lending solutions, treasury and cash management services, mortgage banking, and wealth management, positioning the organization as a full-service community bank.

The company’s lending portfolio includes commercial real estate loans, agricultural loans, small business administration (SBA) loans, construction and development financing, and a variety of consumer mortgage products.