Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) Short Interest Down 30.1% in March

Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 429,200 shares, a decrease of 30.1% from the February 29th total of 613,600 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 167,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Banco de Chile

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Banco de Chile by 99.6% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,517 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 757 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in Banco de Chile by 163.9% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,581 shares of the bank’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 982 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Banco de Chile by 335.9% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,918 shares of the bank’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 1,478 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Banco de Chile by 737.6% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,697 shares of the bank’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 2,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Banco de Chile during the fourth quarter worth approximately $71,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, HSBC lowered Banco de Chile from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th.

Banco de Chile Stock Performance

NYSE:BCH traded up $0.37 on Friday, hitting $22.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 277,836 shares, compared to its average volume of 234,772. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.81. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $22.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $21.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.42 and a beta of 0.40. Banco de Chile has a one year low of $18.64 and a one year high of $24.10.

Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The bank reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.15. Banco de Chile had a return on equity of 25.45% and a net margin of 28.62%. The company had revenue of $987.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $872.49 million. Research analysts predict that Banco de Chile will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Banco de Chile Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a Variable dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 22nd will be given a $1.09 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 21st. Banco de Chile’s payout ratio is 36.33%.

About Banco de Chile

Banco de Chile, together with its subsidiaries, provides various banking and financial products and services to customers in Chile. It operates through Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Treasury and Money Market segments. The company offers deposit products, such as checking accounts, current accounts, demand deposits and accounts, saving accounts, and time deposits; commercial, mortgage, consumer, working capital, syndicated, and installment loans; and credit cards.