Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Key Points

• Moderate Buy consensus from 10 analysts (1 sell, 3 hold, 5 buy, 1 strong buy), with recent upgrades from Morgan Stanley, Kepler, Wall Street Zen and Weiss and a downgrade from Barclays.
• Banco Santander beat quarterly estimates with EPS of $0.28 versus $0.24 expected and revenue of $17.68 billion versus $15.89 billion, and its shares were trading up about 2.7% with a market cap of roughly $172.5 billion and a P/E of 11.47.
• The bank declared a dividend of $0.1473 per share payable May 8 (record/ex-dividend date May 4), while several institutional investors increased stakes and institutions own about 9.19% of the stock.

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the ten analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company.

SAN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays cut Banco Santander from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Banco Santander from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded Banco Santander from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Banco Santander from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Banco Santander from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (a-)" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Banco Santander

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SAN. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Banco Santander by 38.9% in the fourth quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 114,066 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 31,958 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors raised its position in Banco Santander by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 26,863 shares of the bank's stock valued at $315,000 after purchasing an additional 6,014 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Banco Santander by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 327,704 shares of the bank's stock worth $3,844,000 after buying an additional 16,593 shares during the period. Pure Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Banco Santander in the 4th quarter worth approximately $157,000. Finally, Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its stake in shares of Banco Santander by 11.3% during the fourth quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 21,975 shares of the bank's stock valued at $259,000 after buying an additional 2,224 shares during the period. 9.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Banco Santander Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of SAN opened at $11.59 on Thursday. Banco Santander has a fifty-two week low of $5.54 and a fifty-two week high of $13.24. The firm has a market cap of $172.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.47, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $11.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.15, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.33.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $17.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.89 billion. Banco Santander had a net margin of 18.85% and a return on equity of 12.14%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Banco Santander will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Banco Santander Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 4th will be given a dividend of $0.1473 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 4th. This represents a yield of 254.0%. Banco Santander's dividend payout ratio is presently 18.81%.

Banco Santander Company Profile

Banco Santander, SA NYSE: SAN is a Spanish multinational banking group headquartered in Santander, Spain. Founded in 1857, the bank has grown from a regional institution into one of Europe's largest banking groups, operating a diversified financial services platform that serves retail, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large corporate clients. Santander is publicly listed in Spain and maintains American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SAN.

The group's core activities include retail and commercial banking—offering deposit accounts, payment services, mortgages, personal and auto loans, and small business financing—alongside corporate and investment banking services for larger institutional clients.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.