Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases Shares of 56,900 Hope Bancorp, Inc. $HOPE

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 56,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $636,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of HOPE. Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new position in Hope Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hope Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hope Bancorp by 294.0% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,428 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 2,558 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Hope Bancorp by 375.1% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 3,625 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 2,862 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Hope Bancorp by 157.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,026 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 3,071 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HOPE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Brean Capital upgraded Hope Bancorp from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Hope Bancorp from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. DA Davidson raised their target price on Hope Bancorp from $14.50 to $15.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings raised Hope Bancorp from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Hope Bancorp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hope Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.50.

Hope Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of HOPE stock opened at $13.35 on Wednesday. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $12.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.67 and a beta of 0.83. Hope Bancorp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $9.44 and a 12 month high of $14.05.

Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.01. Hope Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.32% and a net margin of 6.56%.The company had revenue of $133.82 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $145.30 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Hope Bancorp, Inc. will post 1.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hope Bancorp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Hope Bancorp

In other Hope Bancorp news, Director Daisy Y. Ha sold 12,000 shares of the company’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 value of $150,360.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 373,115 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,675,130.95. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.27% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.