Amy E. Curran Sells 858 Shares of Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Stock

Heritage Financial Co. (NASDAQ:HFWA) Director Amy E. Curran sold 858 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.77, for a total value of $20,394.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,353 shares in the company, valued at approximately $578,870.81. This represents a 3.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Heritage Financial Price Performance

HFWA traded down $0.19 on Tuesday, hitting $23.61. 367,149 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 182,413. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.01. The firm has a market cap of $802.53 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.04 and a beta of 0.53. Heritage Financial Co. has a one year low of $16.55 and a one year high of $27.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.06. Heritage Financial had a return on equity of 7.17% and a net margin of 13.64%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Heritage Financial Co. will post 2.09 EPS for the current year.

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.07%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 6th. This is an increase from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.42%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com raised Heritage Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th.

Institutional Trading of Heritage Financial

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HFWA. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Heritage Financial by 794.1% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 945 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its holdings 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 valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 2,979 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its holdings 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 valued at $98,000 after buying an additional 3,296 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in Heritage Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $157,000. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in Heritage Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $166,000. Institutional investors own 78.30% of the company’s stock.

About Heritage Financial

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.