BBVA Banco Frances S.A. $BBAR Stock Position Increased by Ping Capital Management Inc.

Key Points

• Ping Capital Management Inc. increased its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 6.5%, now holding 745,900 shares worth approximately $12.3 million.
• Several hedge funds, including GAMMA Investing LLC and PointState Capital LP, have made significant adjustments to their stakes in BBVA Banco Frances, indicating growing interest in the stock.
• BBVA Banco Frances recently reported earnings of $0.24 EPS, falling short of analysts' expectations, and announced a monthly dividend of $0.0335 per share.

Ping Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (NYSE:BBAR - Free Report) by 6.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 745,900 shares of the bank's stock after buying an additional 45,600 shares during the period. BBVA Banco Frances accounts for 3.0% of Ping Capital Management Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Ping Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.37% of BBVA Banco Frances worth $12,278,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in BBVA Banco Frances by 2,203.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 96,090 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,741,000 after buying an additional 91,919 shares in the last quarter. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. purchased a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances during the first quarter worth $362,000. North of South Capital LLP purchased a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances during the first quarter worth $544,000. Walleye Capital LLC purchased a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances during the first quarter worth $637,000. Finally, PointState Capital LP raised its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 36.1% during the first quarter. PointState Capital LP now owns 3,346,539 shares of the bank's stock worth $60,639,000 after acquiring an additional 888,235 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on BBAR. HSBC upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, September 7th. Zacks Research cut shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. Two analysts have 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $20.67.

BBVA Banco Frances Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BBAR opened at $8.25 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. BBVA Banco Frances S.A. has a 52 week low of $7.76 and a 52 week high of $25.01.

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

BBVA Banco Frances Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 19th were given a dividend of $0.0335 per share. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 19th. BBVA Banco Frances's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.85%.

About BBVA Banco Frances

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.

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