Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) Shares Acquired by Avantax Advisory Services Inc.

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) by 19.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 33,698 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,493 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Huntington Bancshares were worth $506,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 32,479,039 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $528,434,000 after acquiring an additional 8,759,871 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its position in Huntington Bancshares by 126.6% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 7,048,773 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $114,684,000 after purchasing an additional 3,938,769 shares during the period. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. grew its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 356.1% during the 4th quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 4,432,186 shares of the bank’s stock worth $72,112,000 after buying an additional 3,460,328 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Huntington Bancshares by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 52,599,986 shares of the bank’s stock worth $855,802,000 after buying an additional 2,310,502 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 18.4% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,422,723 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $234,658,000 after buying an additional 2,241,926 shares during the last quarter. 80.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on HBAN shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Huntington Bancshares from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $21.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Huntington Bancshares from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.50 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Cowen started coverage on Huntington Bancshares in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $21.00 price target (up from $18.00) on shares of Huntington Bancshares in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.68.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

NASDAQ:HBAN opened at $16.20 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. Huntington Bancshares Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $11.91 and a fifty-two week high of $18.44. The company has a market cap of $23.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.00, a PEG ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $16.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.73.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 17th will be paid a $0.155 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 17th. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Huntington Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.93%.

Huntington Bancshares announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, April 17th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the bank to buy up to 5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Marcy C. Hingst sold 13,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.79, for a total value of $216,323.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 337,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,335,109.41. This represents a 3.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Huntington Bancshares Company Profile

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated operates as the bank holding company for The Huntington National Bank that provides commercial, consumer, and mortgage banking services in the United States. The company offers financial products and services to consumer and business customers, including deposits, lending, payments, mortgage banking, dealer financing, investment management, trust, brokerage, insurance, and other financial products and services.