Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) Short Interest Down 9.1% in September

Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 50,900 shares, a decline of 9.1% from the August 31st total of 56,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 17,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days. Approximately 0.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Hovde Group increased their price objective on Home Bancorp from $45.00 to $48.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 19th.

Home Bancorp Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ HBCP opened at $44.58 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.08. Home Bancorp has a 52 week low of $31.47 and a 52 week high of $45.44. The stock has a market cap of $362.35 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.41 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96.

Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The bank reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. Home Bancorp had a net margin of 19.16% and a return on equity of 9.98%. The company had revenue of $49.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.90 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Home Bancorp will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Home Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 29th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. Home Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.10%.

Insider Activity at Home Bancorp

In other Home Bancorp news, Director Daniel G. Guidry sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.48, for a total value of $207,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 66,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,771,652.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 7.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Home Bancorp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 531.8% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 12,289 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $471,000 after acquiring an additional 10,344 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Home Bancorp by 29.3% during the first quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 22,832 shares of the bank’s stock worth $875,000 after purchasing an additional 5,177 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in Home Bancorp by 7.8% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 26,509 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,925 shares during the last quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. raised its position in shares of Home Bancorp by 12.0% in the first quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 32,151 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after purchasing an additional 3,454 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 35,951 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,438,000 after buying an additional 2,672 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.41% of the company’s stock.

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.