Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 35,200 shares, a decrease of 11.1% from the November 30th total of 39,600 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 19,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.8 days. Approximately 0.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Home Bancorp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Home Bancorp by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,377 shares of the bank’s stock worth $106,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Home Bancorp during the third quarter worth approximately $110,000. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 287.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,142 shares of the bank’s stock worth $407,000 after purchasing an additional 6,785 shares in the last quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P lifted its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 14,172 shares of the bank’s stock worth $632,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Home Bancorp by 136.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,668 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $654,000 after purchasing an additional 8,459 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 49.41% of the company’s stock.

Home Bancorp Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Home Bancorp stock traded up $0.24 on Wednesday, hitting $46.21. 13,299 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,599. The company has a market capitalization of $373.19 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.25 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a fifty day moving average of $48.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Home Bancorp has a one year low of $33.30 and a one year high of $52.39.

Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The bank reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $34.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.10 million. Home Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.58% and a net margin of 18.55%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Home Bancorp will post 4.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Home Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This is an increase from Home Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. Home Bancorp’s payout ratio is 23.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HBCP. Hovde Group downgraded Home Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $54.50 in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Home Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Home Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th.

About Home Bancorp

Home Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Home Bank, National Association that provides various banking products and services in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It offers deposit products, including interest-bearing and noninterest-bearing checking, money market, savings, NOW, and certificates of deposit accounts.