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

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Daniel G. Guidry sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.48, for a total transaction of $207,400.00. Following 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 7.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Home Bancorp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of HBCP. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 76,812 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Home Bancorp by 2.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 398,376 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $15,938,000 after acquiring an additional 8,219 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Home Bancorp by 8.0% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 35,951 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after acquiring an additional 2,672 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its position in Home Bancorp by 29.3% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Home Bancorp by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 365,043 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $13,985,000 after purchasing an additional 3,414 shares during the last quarter. 49.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Home Bancorp Price Performance

Home Bancorp stock traded down $2.86 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $41.72. The company had a trading volume of 9,233 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,937. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.08. Home Bancorp has a 1 year low of $31.47 and a 1 year high of $45.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a market capitalization of $339.10 million, a P/E ratio of 9.41 and a beta of 0.69.

Home Bancorp (NASDAQ:HBCP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The bank reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $49.21 million during 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Home Bancorp will post 4.3 EPS for the current year.

Home Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 29th were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 29th. Home Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.10%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.