Hope Bancorp enters September with a notable divergence: short sellers have been adding positions through August even as options traders remain firmly bullish — a split that makes the coming weeks worth watching closely.
The most striking development in the lending and positioning data is the sharp rebuild in short interest. SI jumped 13% over the past week to 4.7% of the free float — roughly 6.1 million shares. That follows a period of relative calm and now puts the short position back near its highest level in the 30-day window. The acceleration began around August 21, when shorts were closer to 5.1 million shares, and escalated through late August. Yet the borrow market tells a very different story: availability is extremely loose at over 1,500%, meaning there are roughly 15 shares available for every one already borrowed. Cost to borrow has eased slightly on the week to 0.46%, near the low end of its recent range. There is no squeeze pressure here — shorts face no friction in building or maintaining positions.
Options positioning contradicts the short-side rebuild almost entirely. The put/call ratio has fallen to 0.19, well below its 20-day average of 0.24 and sitting close to the lower end of the past year's range. That reading — roughly one standard deviation below normal — points to call-heavy positioning, suggesting options traders are not anticipating meaningful downside. The contrast with the short-interest move is the defining tension on HOPE right now: one cohort is adding downside exposure; another is betting the other way via derivatives.
The fundamental backdrop is modestly constructive, though the Street is split on conviction. DA Davidson carries a Buy rating with a $16 target, raised from $15 at end of July following the most recent earnings print. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods maintained a Market Perform after lifting its target to $15 in early August. The mean price target of $15.50 implies around 14% upside from the current $13.63. EPS momentum is genuinely strong — ranked in the 79th percentile on a 30-day basis and 90th percentile over 90 days — suggesting estimates have been trending in the right direction. The bear case centres on spread compression, sluggish loan demand, and a loan-to-deposit ratio that leaves limited room for aggressive growth. The P/E multiple of 9.8x and price-to-book of 0.74x both look cheap in isolation, but they have been drifting lower over the past 30 days, reflecting the modest price slide rather than any re-rating.
On the ownership side, Wellington Management has been the most active institutional hand — the latest filing shows a near-tripling of its stake to 8.6% of the class, up from 5.1%, according to a Schedule 13G/A filed in August 2025. No 13D activist is on the register. The recent insider activity points the other way: director Daisy Ha sold roughly $385,000 worth of stock in early August at $14.25, the only meaningful insider transaction in the past 90 days. That sale, at a price above current levels, adds a mild cautionary note. The dividend history on file is stale — the last recorded payout dates to mid-2022 — so income-driven buyers should verify current dividend status independently before relying on the 4% yield figure cited elsewhere.
The ORTEX short score has edged higher through the back half of August, rising to 44.2 from around 40.8 a month ago — a gradual drift rather than a spike, but directionally consistent with the short-interest rebuild. The next earnings event is scheduled for October 26. With SI rising, options skewed bullish, and a modest price decline of 1.7% on the week amid broad regional bank weakness — peers UBSI, AUB, and RNST all fell between 1.9% and 2.6% — the question heading into that print is whether the earnings-day momentum that produced a near-5% gain in July can repeat, or whether the rebuilding short book reflects an informed view that the macro tailwind for net interest margins is fading.
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