Hope Bancorp, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.14 (NASDAQ:HOPE)

Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOPE) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 6th will be given a dividend of 0.14 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 6th.

Hope Bancorp has a dividend payout ratio of 40.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Hope Bancorp to earn $1.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.1%.

Hope Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of HOPE stock traded down $0.54 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $11.71. 1,671,131 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 718,156. Hope Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $9.80 and a fifty-two week high of $14.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $12.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.65. The company has a market cap of $1.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.94 and a beta of 1.16.

Hope Bancorp (NASDAQ:HOPE) last released its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The financial services provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.03. Hope Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.52% and a net margin of 9.81%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hope Bancorp will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Hope Bancorp

In related news, EVP Angelee Harris sold 3,000 shares of Hope Bancorp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.16, for a total transaction of $42,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 19,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $280,297.20. This trade represents a 13.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven Koh sold 96,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.33, for a total transaction of $1,287,944.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,167,023 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,216,416.59. This represents a 2.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 129,224 shares of company stock valued at $1,737,873. 5.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on HOPE. StockNews.com raised Hope Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on Hope Bancorp from $15.50 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday.

Hope Bancorp Company Profile

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.