Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Heritage Financial (NASDAQ:HFWA) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.06, Zacks reports. Heritage Financial had a net margin of 12.27% and a return on equity of 7.01%.

Heritage Financial Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HFWA opened at $24.65 on Friday. Heritage Financial has a fifty-two week low of $16.55 and a fifty-two week high of $27.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.20. The company has a market cap of $841.80 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.82 and a beta of 0.57.

Heritage Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.89%. This is an increase from Heritage Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. Heritage Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.19%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HFWA has been the topic of several research reports. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of Heritage Financial from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 29th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Heritage Financial from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Heritage Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Heritage Financial news, EVP Tony Chalfant sold 2,975 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total transaction of $78,837.50. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $533,153.50. The trade was a 12.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.