Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts maintain a “Hold” consensus on Grupo Financiero Galicia, with four hold, two buy, one strong-buy and one sell rating. The average 12-month price target is $68.33, versus a recent share price of $42.14.
• The company exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $1.14 in EPS versus the $0.98 consensus and $1.87 billion in revenue versus estimates of $1.70 billion.
• Grupo Financiero Galicia paid a monthly dividend of $0.0531 per share, representing an annualized yield of about 1.5%, while insiders acquired roughly 802,791 shares over the past three months.

Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $68.3333.

GGAL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Friday, August 14th. Itau BBA Securities downgraded shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Grupo Financiero Galicia from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, June 27th.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Trading Down 1.9%

Shares of NASDAQ GGAL opened at $42.14 on Wednesday. Grupo Financiero Galicia has a 12-month low of $25.89 and a 12-month high of $62.51. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $46.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $46.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.20, a P/E/G ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 1.28.

Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 25th. The bank reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.70 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Grupo Financiero Galicia will post 3.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 24th were given a dividend of $0.0531 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 24th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Grupo Financiero Galicia's payout ratio is 23.67%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Grupo Financiero Galicia

In other news, Director Silvestre Moret purchased 224,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 8th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $5.36 per share, with a total value of $1,200,640.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 3,000,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $16,080,000. This represents a 8.07% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In the last three months, insiders acquired 802,791 shares of company stock valued at $4,253,109.

Institutional Trading of Grupo Financiero Galicia

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Carrhae Capital LLP purchased a new position in Grupo Financiero Galicia during the 2nd quarter valued at about $68,052,000. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC boosted its stake in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 52.2% during the second quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 517,540 shares of the bank's stock valued at $25,893,000 after purchasing an additional 177,574 shares in the last quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP bought a new position in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $16,653,000. USS Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in Grupo Financiero Galicia during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $10,214,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 71.2% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 186,852 shares of the bank's stock valued at $9,984,000 after buying an additional 77,740 shares during the period.

About Grupo Financiero Galicia

Grupo Financiero Galicia SA is an Argentina-based financial services holding company whose principal operating subsidiary is Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires SAU. The group provides banking and related financial products to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, corporate clients and agricultural customers in Argentina.

Through its banking operations, Grupo Financiero Galicia offers deposit accounts, personal and commercial loans, credit and debit cards, payment services, foreign trade financing, investment products and digital banking through online and mobile platforms.

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