Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) Short Interest Up 8.5% in January

Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,290,000 shares, a growth of 8.5% from the December 31st total of 2,110,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 724,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on HOPE. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Hope Bancorp from $13.00 to $12.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Hope Bancorp from $15.50 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Hope Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $12.88.

Hope Bancorp Stock Down 2.1 %

HOPE stock opened at $11.42 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Hope Bancorp has a twelve month low of $9.80 and a twelve month high of $14.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $12.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.63. The stock has a market cap of $1.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.93 and a beta of 1.15.

Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. Hope Bancorp had a net margin of 9.95% and a return on equity of 4.84%. Research analysts expect that Hope Bancorp will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hope Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.90%. Hope Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 68.29%.

Insider Activity

In other Hope Bancorp news, EVP Thomas Stenger sold 4,185 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $11.83, for a total transaction of $49,508.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,267 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $227,928.61. This trade represents a 17.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Daisy Y. Ha sold 27,104 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.83, for a total transaction of $374,848.32. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 446,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,179,326.98. This trade represents a 5.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 133,409 shares of company stock worth $1,787,381 over the last three months. Insiders own 5.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hope Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HOPE. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Hope Bancorp by 30.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,553,508 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $57,192,000 after buying an additional 1,054,124 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Hope Bancorp by 47.0% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,055,151 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,968,000 after buying an additional 337,599 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Hope Bancorp by 109.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 253,437 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,183,000 after buying an additional 132,677 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Hope Bancorp by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,152,656 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $77,277,000 after buying an additional 112,824 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Hope Bancorp by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 893,172 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,218,000 after buying an additional 95,570 shares in the last quarter. 84.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Hope Bancorp

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.