OFG Bancorp (NYSE:OFG) Short Interest Up 39.0% in March

OFG Bancorp (NYSE:OFG) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 811,800 shares, a growth of 39.0% from the February 28th total of 583,900 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 437,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on OFG Bancorp from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on OFG Bancorp from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of OFG Bancorp by 48.9% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 801 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its holdings in OFG Bancorp by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 21,041 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $890,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in OFG Bancorp by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 67,999 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,878,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its stake in OFG Bancorp by 5.2% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 8,387 shares of the bank’s stock worth $377,000 after buying an additional 413 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in OFG Bancorp by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,295 shares of the bank’s stock worth $224,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the period. 92.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

OFG Bancorp Price Performance

OFG stock traded down $0.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $39.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 320,033 shares, compared to its average volume of 289,837. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company’s 50 day moving average is $41.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.68. OFG Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $33.19 and a fifty-two week high of $47.66. The stock has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a PE ratio of 9.48 and a beta of 0.96.

OFG Bancorp (NYSE:OFG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The bank reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.12. OFG Bancorp had a return on equity of 15.80% and a net margin of 22.71%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that OFG Bancorp will post 4.18 EPS for the current year.

OFG Bancorp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.30 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from OFG Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.00%. OFG Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.44%.

About OFG Bancorp

OFG Bancorp, a financial holding company, provides a range of banking and financial services. It operates through three segments: Banking, Wealth Management, and Treasury. The company offers checking and savings accounts, and individual retirement accounts; certificate of deposits, as well as time deposit products; commercial, consumer, auto leasing, and mortgage lending services; credit cards; cash management; financial planning and insurance services; and corporate and individual trust, and retirement services.