Short Interest in Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) Rises By 15.5%

Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 29,000 shares, an increase of 15.5% from the January 15th total of 25,100 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 22,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HBCP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Hovde Group lowered shares of Home Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $53.00 to $54.50 in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Home Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Raymond James upgraded shares of Home Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, October 21st.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Picton Mahoney Asset Management grew its position in Home Bancorp by 100.7% during the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 590 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 296 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Home Bancorp by 247.9% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,322 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 942 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in Home Bancorp by 73.8% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,377 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $106,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Home Bancorp during the third quarter valued at $110,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Home Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $180,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.41% of the company’s stock.

Home Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ HBCP traded down $0.37 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $49.48. The company had a trading volume of 9,014 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,837. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $47.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.83. The stock has a market cap of $399.80 million, a P/E ratio of 10.87 and a beta of 0.71. Home Bancorp has a 1 year low of $33.30 and a 1 year high of $52.77. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The bank reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.07. Home Bancorp had a net margin of 18.27% and a return on equity of 9.57%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Home Bancorp will post 4.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Home Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 21st. Investors of record on Monday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 10th. This is a boost from Home Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Home Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.86%.

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.