Baird Financial Group Inc. Grows Position in Heritage Financial Corporation $HFWA

Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Heritage Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:HFWA) by 13.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 49,816 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,764 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.15% of Heritage Financial worth $1,212,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HFWA. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Heritage Financial by 45.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,972 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 927 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. lifted its position in Heritage Financial by 519.0% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 3,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 2,979 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its position in Heritage Financial by 475.6% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 3,989 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 3,296 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its position in Heritage Financial by 14.8% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 4,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 520 shares during the period. Finally, Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new stake in Heritage Financial during the 1st quarter worth approximately $167,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut Heritage Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.67.

Heritage Financial Stock Up 0.9%

HFWA opened at $25.03 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $849.77 million, a P/E ratio of 17.50 and a beta of 0.56. Heritage Financial Corporation has a 12 month low of $19.84 and a 12 month high of $27.58.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $56.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $63.54 million. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.34% and a net margin of 15.22%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial Corporation will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Heritage Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 6th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 6th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Heritage Financial’s payout ratio is currently 67.13%.

Heritage Financial Profile

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to small and medium sized businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts various deposit products, such as noninterest demand deposits, interest bearing demand deposits, money market accounts, savings accounts, personal checking accounts, and certificates of deposit.