Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on HBCP. Raymond James upgraded shares of Home Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, October 21st. Hovde Group upped their price objective on shares of Home Bancorp from $48.50 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st.

Home Bancorp Price Performance

Home Bancorp stock opened at $49.98 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market cap of $403.84 million, a P/E ratio of 11.08 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $44.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.91. Home Bancorp has a 12-month low of $33.30 and a 12-month high of $52.39.

Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) last announced 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. Home Bancorp had a net margin of 18.55% and a return on equity of 9.58%. The business had revenue of $34.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $33.10 million. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Home Bancorp will post 4.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Home Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 28th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 28th. This is a positive change from Home Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. Home Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 23.06%.

Institutional Trading of Home Bancorp

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HBCP. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Home Bancorp during the third quarter worth $110,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 531.8% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 12,289 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $471,000 after buying an additional 10,344 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Home Bancorp by 29.3% during the 1st quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 22,832 shares of the bank’s stock worth $875,000 after acquiring an additional 5,177 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 7.8% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 26,509 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,925 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Home Bancorp by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 35,951 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after buying an additional 2,672 shares during the last quarter. 49.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Home Bancorp Company Profile

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.