Banco De Chile (NYSE:BCH) Short Interest Up 74.2% in April

Banco De Chile (NYSE:BCH) saw a large growth in short interest in April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totaling 903,292 shares, a growth of 74.2% from the April 15th total of 518,614 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 559,725 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.6 days. Currently, 0.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Banco De Chile by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,396 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $167,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Banco De Chile by 3.9% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,972 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. raised its holdings in shares of Banco De Chile by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. now owns 77,835 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,958,000 after buying an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. Profund Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Banco De Chile by 5.5% in the third quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 10,443 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 543 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Banco De Chile by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 18,508 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $703,000 after buying an additional 651 shares during the last quarter. 1.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on BCH. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Banco De Chile from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. UBS Group set a $48.00 target price on shares of Banco De Chile and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Banco De Chile from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Banco De Chile currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $40.00.

Banco De Chile Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BCH traded up $0.50 on Tuesday, hitting $36.98. The stock had a trading volume of 296,743 shares, compared to its average volume of 412,995. Banco De Chile has a twelve month low of $27.08 and a twelve month high of $46.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.49. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $37.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.05. The company has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28 and a beta of 0.24.

Banco De Chile (NYSE:BCH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 31st. The bank reported $0.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Banco De Chile had a return on equity of 19.47% and a net margin of 29.95%.The business had revenue of $321.27 million during the quarter. On average, equities research analysts predict that Banco De Chile will post 2.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Banco De Chile Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 13th. Investors of record on Monday, March 30th were issued a $2.1877 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 30th. Banco De Chile’s payout ratio is currently 68.18%.

Banco De Chile Company Profile

Banco de Chile (NYSE: BCH) is a leading Chilean financial institution headquartered in Santiago. Founded in 1893, the bank is one of the country’s oldest and most established banking groups, serving a broad spectrum of individual, corporate and institutional clients. It is publicly listed and operates under Chilean banking regulations while participating in international capital markets.

The bank’s core businesses include retail banking, commercial and corporate banking, and investment banking.