How to buy Heritage Financial Corporation stock | $23.39

Heritage Financial Corporation is a banks-regional business based in the US. Heritage Financial Corporation shares (HFWA) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Heritage Financial Corporation employs 857 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$191.2 million.

How to buy shares in Heritage Financial Corporation

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Heritage Financial Corporation. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: HFWA. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Heritage Financial Corporation reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$23.39, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Heritage Financial Corporation, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Heritage Financial Corporation. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Heritage Financial Corporation share price

Use our graph to track the performance of HFWA stocks over time.

Heritage Financial Corporation shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-26.

Latest market close	USD$23.39
52-week range	USD$14.3571 - USD$27.4007
50-day moving average	USD$23.8306
200-day moving average	USD$20.7166
Wall St. target price	USD$24.25
PE ratio	20.9364
Dividend yield	USD$0.8 (3.47%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$1.1

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Is it a good time to buy Heritage Financial Corporation stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Heritage Financial Corporation by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Heritage Financial Corporation price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $23.39 from 2020-12-31

1 week (2021-01-08)	-5.46%
1 month (2020-12-15)	-3.23%
3 months (2020-10-15)	13.99%
6 months (2020-07-15)	15.00%

1 year (2020-01-15)	-14.96%
2 years (2019-01-15)	-23.56%
3 years (2018-01-12)	31.8
5 years (2016-01-15)	33.20%

Is Heritage Financial Corporation under- or over-valued?

Valuing Heritage Financial Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Heritage Financial Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Heritage Financial Corporation's P/E ratio

Heritage Financial Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 21x. In other words, Heritage Financial Corporation shares trade at around 21x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Heritage Financial Corporation's PEG ratio

Heritage Financial Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.13. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Heritage Financial Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Heritage Financial Corporation financials

Revenue TTM	USD$191.2 million
Operating margin TTM	25.9%
Gross profit TTM	USD$227.8 million
Return on assets TTM	0.65%
Return on equity TTM	4.95%
Profit margin	20.83%
Book value	$22.378
Market capitalisation	USD$827 million

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Heritage Financial Corporation shares

There are currently 1.7 million Heritage Financial Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as Heritage Financial Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 2.8% down from 1.7 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Heritage Financial Corporation shares can be evaluated.

Heritage Financial Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Heritage Financial Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Heritage Financial Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Heritage Financial Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 115071.05444521). Heritage Financial Corporation's SIR currently stands at 14.51. In other words for every 100,000 Heritage Financial Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 14510 shares are currently held short.

However Heritage Financial Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Heritage Financial Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable Heritage Financial Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Heritage Financial Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.05% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Heritage Financial Corporation shares in existence, roughly 50 shares are currently held short) or 0.0557% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Heritage Financial Corporation shares, roughly 56 shares are currently held short).

A SIR above 10% would generally be considered pretty high, pointing to a potentially pessimistic outlook for the share price and a discouraging interest in betting against Heritage Financial Corporation.

Find out more about how you can short Heritage Financial Corporation stock.

Heritage Financial Corporation share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 75.61% of net profits

Recently Heritage Financial Corporation has paid out, on average, around 75.61% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.47% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Heritage Financial Corporation shareholders could enjoy a 3.47% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Heritage Financial Corporation's case, that would currently equate to about $0.8 per share.

Heritage Financial Corporation's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Heritage Financial Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 18 November 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 3 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Heritage Financial Corporation's shares ever split?

Heritage Financial Corporation's shares were split on 28 September 2005.

Heritage Financial Corporation share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Heritage Financial Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $14.3571 up to $27.4007. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Heritage Financial Corporation's is 0.7769. This would suggest that Heritage Financial Corporation's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).

Heritage Financial Corporation overview

Heritage Financial Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Heritage Bank that provides various financial services to businesses and individuals in the United States. The company 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. Its loan portfolio includes commercial and industrial loans, owner-occupied and non-owner occupied commercial real estate loans, one-to-four family residential loans, real estate construction and land development loans, consumer loans, business loans, lines of credit, term equipment financing, and term real estate loans, as well as commercial business loans focuses on real estate related industries and businesses in agricultural, healthcare, legal, and other professions. The company also originates loans that are guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration; and offers trust services through trust powers, as well as objective advice. As of June 30, 2020, the company had a network of 62 branches located in Washington and Oregon. The company was formerly known as Heritage Financial Corporation, M.H.C. and changed its name to Heritage Financial Corporation in 1998. Heritage Financial Corporation was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Olympia, Washington.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Heritage Financial Corporation is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 1.603% of Heritage Financial Corporation shares are held by insiders and 83.491% by institutions.

• How many people work for Heritage Financial Corporation?

  Latest data suggests 857 work at Heritage Financial Corporation.

• When does the fiscal year end for Heritage Financial Corporation?

  Heritage Financial Corporation's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Heritage Financial Corporation based?

  Heritage Financial Corporation's address is: 201 Fifth Avenue SW, Olympia, WA, United States, 98501

• What is Heritage Financial Corporation's ISIN number?

  Heritage Financial Corporation's international securities identification number is: US42722X1063

• What is Heritage Financial Corporation's CUSIP number?

  Heritage Financial Corporation's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 42722X106