Insider Selling: Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) Director Sells $377,500.00 in Stock

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) Director Rhodes Bobbitt sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $377,500.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 107,016 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,039,854. This trade represents a 8.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Hilltop Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of HTH opened at $37.75 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.21 billion, a PE ratio of 14.30 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.20. Hilltop Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $28.92 and a 12-month high of $40.41.

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

Hilltop Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on HTH. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Hilltop from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Hilltop from a “strong sell” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Hilltop from $34.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Hilltop from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hilltop currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hilltop

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mangrove Partners IM LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hilltop during the 3rd quarter worth $987,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 171,976 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,747,000 after buying an additional 16,683 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Hilltop during the 3rd quarter worth $1,064,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 156.7% during the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 81,675 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,772,000 after buying an additional 49,859 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP raised its stake in shares of Hilltop by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 282,690 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,448,000 after buying an additional 40,902 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.13% of the company’s stock.

About Hilltop

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.