Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $14.50.

Several brokerages have commented on HOPE. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Hope Bancorp from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Brean Capital upgraded shares of Hope Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Hope Bancorp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Hope Bancorp from $14.50 to $15.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Hope Bancorp from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Daisy Y. Ha sold 12,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.53, for a total transaction of $150,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 373,115 shares in the company, valued at $4,675,130.95. The trade was a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.27% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hope Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Hope Bancorp by 62.7% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 7,848 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $107,000 after buying an additional 3,023 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hope Bancorp in the 1st quarter valued at $201,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Hope Bancorp by 16.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 989,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,047,000 after acquiring an additional 142,807 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Hope Bancorp by 33.1% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 19,113 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $213,000 after acquiring an additional 4,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in Hope Bancorp by 51.4% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 11,457 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 3,890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.00% of the company’s stock.

Hope Bancorp Stock Performance

NASDAQ HOPE opened at $13.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.75 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.11. Hope Bancorp has a 1-year low of $9.44 and a 1-year high of $14.05.

Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.01. Hope Bancorp had a net margin of 6.56% and a return on equity of 5.32%. The firm had revenue of $133.82 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $145.30 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.17 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Hope Bancorp will post 1.13 EPS for the current year.

Hope Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, May 8th were paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 8th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Hope Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 107.69%.

About Hope Bancorp

Hope Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Hope Bank, a California-chartered financial institution serving small and middle-market businesses, professionals and affluent individuals. The company’s principal activities include accepting a variety of deposit products—such as checking accounts, savings and money market accounts, and time deposits—and extending commercial credit facilities. With a focus on community banking, Hope Bancorp tailors its offerings to meet the needs of clients in diverse industries, including real estate, professional services and import/export trade.

In its lending business, Hope Bancorp provides commercial real estate loans, construction financing, working capital lines of credit and equipment financing.