Short Interest in Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) Expands By 12.2%

Home Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HBCP) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 56,000 shares, a growth of 12.2% from the August 15th total of 49,900 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 18,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.1 days. Approximately 0.8% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Home Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Home Bancorp stock opened at $44.20 on Wednesday. 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 has a 1 year low of $31.47 and a 1 year high of $45.44. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.55. The firm has a market cap of $359.26 million, a PE ratio of 9.32 and a beta of 0.69.

Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The bank reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $49.21 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.90 million. Home Bancorp had a return on equity of 9.98% and a net margin of 19.16%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.21 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Home Bancorp will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Home Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 29th. Home Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.10%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Daniel G. Guidry sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 66,819 shares in the company, valued at $2,771,652.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 7.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Home Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HBCP. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its position in Home Bancorp by 120.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 140,352 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,615,000 after purchasing an additional 76,812 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 531.8% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 12,289 shares of the bank’s stock worth $471,000 after acquiring an additional 10,344 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Home Bancorp by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 398,376 shares of the bank’s stock worth $15,938,000 after acquiring an additional 8,219 shares during the period. Kennedy Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Home Bancorp by 29.3% in the 1st quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 22,832 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $875,000 after purchasing an additional 5,177 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cullen Investment Group LTD. boosted its stake in Home Bancorp by 12.0% during the 1st 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. 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.