Short Interest in HomeStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMST) Drops By 7.2%

HomeStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ:HMST) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 311,000 shares, a decline of 7.2% from the September 30th total of 335,000 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 97,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days.

HomeStreet Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:HMST traded down $0.01 on Thursday, hitting $9.06. 231,848 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 195,394. The company has a market cap of $170.76 million, a PE ratio of -4.34 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.83. HomeStreet has a 52 week low of $4.38 and a 52 week high of $16.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.06.

HomeStreet (NASDAQ:HMST) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The financial services provider reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by ($0.12). HomeStreet had a negative return on equity of 1.87% and a negative net margin of 3.30%. The firm had revenue of $39.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.93 million. As a group, research analysts expect that HomeStreet will post -0.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on HMST. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of HomeStreet in a report on Sunday, September 22nd. They set a “sell” rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of HomeStreet from $13.50 to $14.50 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.25.

Insider Activity at HomeStreet

In other HomeStreet news, Director Paulette Lemon sold 2,401 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.59, for a total value of $37,431.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,923 shares in the company, valued at $263,829.57. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 4.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of HomeStreet

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp boosted its position in shares of HomeStreet by 21.0% during the second quarter. Mendon Capital Advisors Corp now owns 363,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,138,000 after buying an additional 63,000 shares during the last quarter. Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HomeStreet by 113.6% during the second quarter. Endeavour Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 706,253 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,051,000 after purchasing an additional 375,581 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new position in HomeStreet during the second quarter valued at approximately $410,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in HomeStreet in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $122,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of HomeStreet by 23.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 14,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $164,000 after buying an additional 2,703 shares during the period. 74.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HomeStreet Company Profile

HomeStreet, Inc operates as the bank holding company for HomeStreet Bank that provides commercial, mortgage, and consumer/retail banking services in the Western United States. The company offers personal and business checking, savings, interest-bearing negotiable order of withdrawal, and money market accounts, as well as certificates of deposit; credit cards; insurance; and treasury management services.