Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 29,000 shares, a growth of 15.5% from the January 15th total of 25,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 22,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.3 days. Currently, 0.4% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Home Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Home Bancorp by 287.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 9,142 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $407,000 after purchasing an additional 6,785 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Home Bancorp by 136.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 14,668 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $654,000 after buying an additional 8,459 shares in the last quarter. Montz Harcus Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Home Bancorp in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,598,000. 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 worth $106,000 after buying an additional 1,009 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Home Bancorp by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 162,727 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,256,000 after acquiring an additional 1,874 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 49.41% of the company’s stock.

Home Bancorp Stock Performance

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

Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The bank reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.14 by $0.07. Home Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.57% and a net margin of 18.27%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Home Bancorp will post 4.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Home Bancorp Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on HBCP. Hovde Group lowered Home Bancorp from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $53.00 to $54.50 in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Raymond James upgraded Home Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Home Bancorp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd.

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.