Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Thursday morning.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Hope Bancorp from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th.

Hope Bancorp Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of HOPE opened at $13.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $1.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.45 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Hope Bancorp has a 1 year low of $9.45 and a 1 year high of $14.53. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.94.

Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $246.92 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $121.67 million. Hope Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.52% and a net margin of 9.81%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Hope Bancorp will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hope Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were paid a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.05%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 7th. Hope Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 66.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hope Bancorp

In other Hope Bancorp news, Director Steven Koh sold 96,620 shares of Hope Bancorp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.33, for a total transaction of $1,287,944.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,167,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,216,416.59. The trade was a 2.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David P. Malone sold 10,428 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.71, for a total value of $132,539.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 109,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,397,985.61. This represents a 8.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 136,902 shares of company stock valued at $1,829,678 in the last three months. Company insiders own 5.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HOPE. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in Hope Bancorp in the third quarter worth about $48,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in shares of Hope Bancorp by 149.5% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 5,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 3,163 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Hope Bancorp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $58,000. Choreo LLC acquired a new stake in Hope Bancorp in the second quarter valued at approximately $108,000. Finally, AE Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Hope Bancorp in the second quarter worth $112,000. 84.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Hope Bancorp Company Profile

Hope Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Bank of Hope that provides retail and commercial banking services for businesses and individuals in the United States. It accepts personal and business checking, money market, savings, time deposit, and individual retirement accounts. The company also offers loans comprising commercial and industrial loans to businesses for various purposes, such as working capital, purchasing inventory, debt refinancing, business acquisitions, international trade finance, other business-related financing, and loans syndication services; commercial real estate loans; residential mortgage loans; small business administration loans; and consumer loans, such as single-family mortgage, home equity, automobile, credit card, and personal loans.