Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) Short Interest Update

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 33,650,000 shares, a growth of 13.5% from the October 31st total of 29,650,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 13,650,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Zachary Jacob Wasserman sold 8,644 shares of Huntington Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.63, for a total value of $152,393.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 259,943 shares in the company, valued at $4,582,795.09. The trade was a 3.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Helga Houston sold 6,455 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.43, for a total transaction of $99,600.65. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 558,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,615,217.06. The trade was a 1.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 43,699 shares of company stock valued at $757,356. Corporate insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntington Bancshares

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Huntington Bancshares during the second quarter worth $744,000. Petiole USA ltd acquired a new position in Huntington Bancshares during the 3rd quarter worth about $3,454,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Huntington Bancshares by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 192,984 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,837,000 after acquiring an additional 55,865 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in Huntington Bancshares by 531.0% in the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,150,690 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,166,000 after acquiring an additional 968,331 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in Huntington Bancshares by 5.6% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 844,466 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,414,000 after purchasing an additional 44,662 shares during the period. 80.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HBAN. Citigroup lifted their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $18.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Huntington Bancshares from $15.00 to $17.50 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Huntington Bancshares from $16.25 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Huntington Bancshares from $15.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Huntington Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.76.

Huntington Bancshares Stock Performance

HBAN stock traded down $0.15 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $17.63. 8,978,836 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,900,708. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.64. The firm has a market cap of $25.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.85, a PEG ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 1.06. Huntington Bancshares has a 1-year low of $11.57 and a 1-year high of $18.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.03. Huntington Bancshares had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 14.19%. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.86 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Huntington Bancshares will post 1.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntington Bancshares Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 18th will be given a dividend of $0.155 per share. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 18th. Huntington Bancshares’s payout ratio is 59.62%.

About Huntington Bancshares

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.