BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Rating Lowered to Hold at Citigroup

Key Points

• Citigroup has reaffirmed a neutral rating for BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) amidst mixed analyst opinions, with one rating it "strong sell" and others positioning it as "hold" or "buy".
• The stock currently trades at approximately $9.81, significantly below its 52-week high of $25.01, and has experienced a 6.0% increase recently.
• BBVA Banco Frances reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.24 for the last quarter, falling short of analyst estimates of $0.37, and predicts EPS of 1.94 for the current fiscal year.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at Citigroup from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on BBAR. Wall Street Zen upgraded BBVA Banco Frances from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, September 7th. Zacks Research lowered shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Itau BBA Securities started coverage on shares of BBVA Banco Frances in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a "market perform" rating and a $18.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $22.50.

BBVA Banco Frances Trading Down 6.0%

BBAR opened at $9.01 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $14.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.28. BBVA Banco Frances has a 1-year low of $8.85 and a 1-year high of $25.01. The company has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.72 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 20th. The bank reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.13). BBVA Banco Frances had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 6.65%.The company had revenue of $524.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $727.31 billion. Analysts predict that BBVA Banco Frances will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of BBVA Banco Frances

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in BBVA Banco Frances by 695.8% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 523,438 shares of the bank's stock valued at $9,977,000 after purchasing an additional 457,663 shares during the period. PointState Capital LP boosted its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 47.7% in the 4th quarter. PointState Capital LP now owns 2,458,304 shares of the bank's stock worth $46,855,000 after buying an additional 793,411 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 42.6% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 61,600 shares of the bank's stock valued at $1,174,000 after buying an additional 18,400 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances during the fourth quarter worth about $1,742,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 2,203.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 96,090 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,741,000 after acquiring an additional 91,919 shares during the period.

BBVA Banco Frances Company Profile

Banco BBVA Argentina SA provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. The company provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards financing, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies.