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

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

Banco de Chile Stock Performance

BCH traded up $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $22.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 277,836 shares, compared to its average volume of 234,772. The stock has a market cap of $11.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.42 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $22.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.81. Banco de Chile has a twelve month low of $18.64 and a twelve month high of $24.10.

Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 29th. The bank reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $872.49 million. Research analysts expect that Banco de Chile will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Banco de Chile Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Banco de Chile

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BCH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Banco de Chile by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 597,813 shares of the bank’s stock worth $12,795,000 after buying an additional 7,462 shares during the period. UBS Group AG lifted its position in shares of Banco de Chile by 70.6% during the 1st quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 16,679 shares of the bank’s stock worth $358,000 after buying an additional 6,904 shares during the period. Ethic Inc. bought a new position in shares of Banco de Chile during the 1st quarter worth approximately $297,000. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in shares of Banco de Chile by 13.7% during the 2nd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 46,711 shares of the bank’s stock worth $852,000 after buying an additional 5,625 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Banco de Chile by 9.3% during the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 253,516 shares of the bank’s stock worth $4,621,000 after buying an additional 21,640 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 1.24% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Banco de Chile Company Profile

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.