Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HTH) has announced that it has received authorization to repurchase common stock worth as much as $50 million through a stock buyback program.
According to the report, the company can use the authorized program to buy back the stock through private deals as authorized under Rule 10b-18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Hilltop can alternatively buy back the shares through open-market purchases. The timing of these share buybacks and the extent to which the company will repurchase the stock will depend on the outlook of the market as well as corporate factors as outlined by the firm’s management team.
The company released the report for its performance in the first quarter about two months ago where it revealed a drop in the share performance for the first quarter of 2016 compared to the performance in the previous year. Hilltop’s common stock holders received an income of $27.6 million which is equivalent to $0.28 for every diluted share in the first quarter this year. This is a massive drop compared to $111.9 million shares common stock revenue equivalent to $1.11 for each diluted share in the first three months of 2015.
The drastic change in common stock income is most likely because of the acquisition of SWS, which was worth $81.3 million equivalent to $0.81 per diluted share. The company’s average equity returns and average annual returns from assets were 6.32% and 0.96% respectively in the first quarter of 2016 versus 26.76% and 3.64% respectively in the first quarter of 2015.
Hilltop CEO, Jeremy Ford, stated that his company was happy to report strong financial results for this year’s first quarter. The CEO further added that the PlainsCapital Bank generated consistent capital which was fueled by steady growth in loans, low-cost deposits, and consistent credit quality. Mr. Ford also noted that his company successfully merged broker-dealers into one unit in January this year. Integration of related costs and adjustment of the transactions also led to improvement in pre-tax margins.
Vanguard Group Inc held 5.48 million shares of the company as on March 31.