Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) Receives $13.17 Average Target Price from Analysts

Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the four analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $13.75.

A number of equities analysts have commented on HOPE shares. DA Davidson reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $14.50 target price on shares of Hope Bancorp in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Hope Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Hope Bancorp in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Hope Bancorp from $12.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David P. Malone sold 20,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $11.50, for a total transaction of $239,430.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 66,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $766,567. This represents a 23.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 26,787 shares of company stock worth $303,917. 5.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hope Bancorp

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Hope Bancorp by 98.7% in the 4th quarter. Four Tree Island Advisory LLC now owns 59,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after purchasing an additional 29,400 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp purchased a new stake in Hope Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $188,000. Comerica Bank increased its stake in Hope Bancorp by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 140,497 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,540,000 after purchasing an additional 17,951 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Hope Bancorp by 73.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,972,716 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $21,621,000 after buying an additional 835,814 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH lifted its stake in shares of Hope Bancorp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH now owns 269,046 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,950,000 after buying an additional 1,152 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.00% of the company’s stock.

Hope Bancorp Stock Down 0.1%

Hope Bancorp stock opened at $11.98 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $1.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.04 and a beta of 0.86. The business has a fifty day moving average of $11.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.88. Hope Bancorp has a twelve month low of $8.82 and a twelve month high of $12.35.

Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $145.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $142.90 million. Hope Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.09% and a net margin of 5.81%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.20 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Hope Bancorp will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hope Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 6th will be given a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 6th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.7%. Hope Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 121.74%.

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.