Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) Lifted to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday.

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Banco de Chile from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, April 16th.

Banco de Chile Price Performance

BCH opened at $22.48 on Friday. Banco de Chile has a twelve month low of $19.20 and a twelve month high of $24.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $23.28 and a 200-day moving average of $22.80.

Banco de Chile (NYSE:BCH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The bank reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.02. Banco de Chile had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 23.65%. The firm had revenue of $824.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $818.94 million. Analysts predict that Banco de Chile will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Banco de Chile

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Banco de Chile by 24.8% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,926 shares of the bank’s stock worth $160,000 after purchasing an additional 1,573 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Banco de Chile by 30.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 418,556 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,455,000 after purchasing an additional 97,601 shares in the last quarter. Mariner LLC increased its stake in shares of Banco de Chile by 46.1% in the third quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 26,203 shares of the bank’s stock worth $529,000 after purchasing an additional 8,265 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Banco de Chile by 14.1% in the third quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 11,691 shares of the bank’s stock worth $236,000 after purchasing an additional 1,449 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Banco de Chile by 3.2% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 29,450 shares of the bank’s stock worth $594,000 after purchasing an additional 926 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 1.24% of the company’s stock.

About Banco de Chile

Banco de Chile, together with its subsidiaries, provides various banking services to customers in Chile. The company offers checking and debit accounts, debit and credit cards, and lines of credit; mortgage, consume, commercial, general purpose mortgage loans, and finance leases; and factoring services, mutual fund management, stock brokerage, foreign trade, payments and collections, insurance brokerage, including life and general insurance, as well as time deposits, savings instruments, and foreign currency services through branches under the Banco de Chile and Banco Edwards brands.